As Emirates Riverside’s showpiece one-day international fixture between England and Australia heads towards an early sell-out, Durham County Cricket Club looks forward to 2018 in a position of strength.
At the end of 2017, Durham County Cricket Club’s net asset position was the strongest it has been since 2010.
The improvement in the financial position represents a number of factors including a positive profit from the hosting the West Indies IT20 match, additional ECB distributions and reduced loan interest payments.
The Club’s financial plan should see the Council debt – now in the form of preference shares – paid off in full, ten years earlier than under the previous loan.
Durham CCC also received the most performance related funding from the ECB across all Counties with respect to the element linked to developing England qualified players reflecting the investment put into the Academy.
Throughout the refinancing process no public debt, including financing from the LEP and Durham County Council, has been written off, all liabilities are being repaid in full.
2017 saw a further year of significant growth across all our commercial revenue streams.
The conference business grew 16% on the previous year as we welcomed 34,668 conference guests on site. The venue also hosted its first marriage ceremony, after becoming licenced in March.
DCCC’s cricket hospitality sold out for the West Indies IT20 and domestic T20 hospitality sales beat budget and sales per head were up 15% on the previous year.
2017 was a huge success for Durham cricket, represented by Durham CCC, the Durham Cricket Board and the Foundation – the latter quadrupled its delivery within the local community.
The wide range of initiatives have engaged with over 1,500 people, having a positive impact on their lives. 2017 saw the addition of numerous new projects including supporting and delivering a nationally recognised mental health programme, a new partnership with Park View School in Chester-le-Street and a gender equality programme designed to empower young women and girls through cricket.
A Girl’s Academy was launched to sit alongside the hugely successful Boy’s Academy and entered into a partnership with Northumberland, Cumbria and Durham University to develop woman and girls cricket in the Northern region.
Sponsorship grew again this year and continued the consistent year on year growth Durham CCC have seen since 2015. Durham welcomed a second lounge sponsor with Royal Caribbean rebranding the Lumley Lounge. Innovative work with our partners led to the redevelopment of the Fosters Field for 2017, which has provided a bespoke space for companies to entertain at T20 fixtures.
Durham delivered the strongest and most well-attended Women and Girls’ campaign in the country, attracting 766 women into cricket this summer, more than any other county, through a series of “Ladies Days”, held at 13 local cricket clubs. The days took place during competitive girls’ softball festivals and over a thousand women attended the events with 70 per cent of them taking part in a cricket game on the day.
Prior to the campaign, there were no women’s softball teams in Durham County and this summer has been a big step forward in the female game at a local level.
Durham CCC also delivered the new national All Stars Cricket Programme, aimed at bringing younger children into the game. Over 900 five to eight-year-old boys and girls in Durham County took part in the debut summer for All Stars Cricket. The eight-week programme ran in 43 local cricket clubs and gave kids a great first experience in cricket.
While there is only a small financial benefit to the Club for the two extremely well-attended concerts hosted at Emirates Riverside (Rod Stewart and Little Mix) There are other wider community benefits of bringing people to the region and the opportunity it gives to attend events as well as generating and protecting local employment.
Over 45,000 people attended the two major concerts and the international fixture held at the ground this year. Those attendances combined with the uplift in regular season attendances and use of the ground as an events venue delivered an estimated economic benefit of £18m to the region and created the equivalent of over 200 full-time jobs.
The Club has launched a brand-new website and ticketing system that will significantly improve Durham’s customer service, data collection and ease of customer purchase. The commercial team has moved to a marketing strategy that focuses heavily on digital content and enable’s the team to monitor our return of investment, open rates, retweets, likes, views and website hits.
Last year’s marketing campaign helped to achieve a sell-out crowd for England’s IT20 fixture against the West Indies in September. Emirates Riverside being the only venue to sell out 100% during the English summer. Using the same core marketing principles for this year’s England v Australia ODI Durham are once again ahead of the curve and have already sold out 80% of Emirates Riverside as the Club move towards an early sell-out.
T20 Blast attendances were up around 18% year on year and season ticket numbers were up more than 40%, while membership increased for the first time in a number of years.
Last year’s international fixture at Emirates Riverside received vast TV coverage. Thousands tuned in across the UK with the match being beamed live around the world. Durham’s domestic fixtures also featured heavily in TV, press and online cricket coverage throughout the summer. The Club’s own digital channels continue to be accessed from across the globe with the DCCC Twitter feed alone receiving 30million views in the last year.
Terry Collins, Chief Executive at Durham County Council, said: “Durham County Cricket Club plays a hugely important role for both our county and the wider region and this year has once again demonstrated the significant benefit the club can bring to the whole of the north east.
“The sell-out fixture between England and the West Indies provided a real boost to the local economy, raised the profile of Durham on a global scale and illustrates the value of hosting international matches in our region.
“The club has also continued to play a vital role within our communities and we are delighted that so many people engaged with the wide range of initiatives on offer, particularly those that saw hundreds of women and girls becoming involved with the game for the first time.”