ENGLAND'S NEW T20 LEAGUE

ECB predicts loss of 15 million GBP in opening season of new T20 competition

by Rob Johnston • Last updated on

ECB has been faced with a plethora of questions, right from sponsorship feasibility to finding its audience, and also when it could start making profits. © Getty

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are predicting a 15 million GBP loss for the first year of the proposed new eight-team regional T20 competition.

Finance directors from the first-class counties met last week as part of their regular schedule of meetings but discussions centered largely around the finances of the proposed T20 competition. Cricbuzz has been passed a document, produced by the Chairman of the group of finance directors, which details the outcome of their discussions.

Also present at the meeting was Scott Smith, the ECB's financial director. The document says that Smith presented figures which suggested the overall financial results for the tournament would be a deficit, at least initially, with a loss of 15 million GBP expected in the first season. The ECB do not yet know when the new tournament is planned to become profitable.

It was understood the counties would receive a minimum of 1.3 million GBP or one-nineteenth of the net revenues from the competition, whichever was higher, as their share of the tournament, but the discussion at the finance director's meeting suggests otherwise. The document states that counties would not receive more than 1.3 million GBP - presumably including if the net revenues exceeded that amount - until the competition becomes profitable.

The county finance directors have questions in 18 areas which they want the ECB to answer. The document suggests that, despite the progress of the tournament being seen as inevitable, there are still many reservations within the counties themselves as to how the new competition may impact them financially.

One of the questions posed is whether the ECB have quantified the potential loss in sponsorship, membership and hospitality that the counties who do not host one of the eight teams will suffer, should the proposal render the Natwest T20 Blast and 50-over competition 'subsidiary' tournaments in the eyes of spectators and sponsors.

The finance directors also want evidence for the ECB's claim that a new competition will bring in a new audience from a wider geographical area. The experience of those attending the meeting suggests most of the current T20 audience comes from within three to five miles of the ground on which the match is played.

There are also other questions about how the figure of ten free-to-air games, proposed by the ECB to help reach a wider audience, was arrived at, how the ECB will prevent any new money being used to simply increase player wages, and what plan the board has for mending the business model of the first-class counties using this new money.

It is not yet known whether the ECB will have answers to these questions when the Chairman and Chief Executives next meet to discuss the proposals on May 27. It is expected that the meeting will more or less give a go-ahead to the competition which begins in 2020. What seems strange is that the proposal is progressing at such a rate when there are, clearly, many questions left unanswered.

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