Yorkshire rising to challenge of cutting their debt

In their annual accounts for the year ending on December 31, released this morning, Yorkshire report a growth of 7.9 per cent in income, from £6.8m to £7.3m.

This has helped cut the deficit from £557,710 to £326,758.

International match revenue amounted to nearly 30 per cent of the club’s income at £2.2m, although that was £58k down on the previous year.

Income from the England and Wales Cricket Board for winning the title, as well as payments in respect of the development of England players and their representation for the national side, rose from £1.8m to £2.2m.

Yorkshire director of finance Paul Hudson says the club are taking steps in the right direction despite the ongoing challenge of servicing such a huge debt.

Last year alone, Yorkshire paid nearly £600,000 in loan capital and £1m in interest on their debts.

“The club is financially challenged, so it’s about us taking steps in the right direction,” said Hudson.

“We have a debt (in excess) of £23m which is a challenge in itself. We are a company that trades well, but we are crippled by the interest and the capital repayments on our debt.

“That is always something we are battling against and something we are working very hard on.

“The next piece of the jigsaw for us is to try and produce a satisfactory financial structure to make the debt servicable.”

One of the club’s largest creditors is outgoing chairman Colin Graves, who is owed £5.5m (a further £5.6m is owed to the CJ and J Graves Accumulation and Maintenance Trusts).

“We will be looking at how we deal with his personal debt,” continued Hudson, who says the club are conscious that the new chairman of the ECB might not want a conflict of interests.

“The chairman of the ECB does not want to be compromised. He cannot be voting on issues that affect all the counties when he has that investment in one county.

“Mr Graves’s £5.5m debt is part of everything we are looking at.

“We are working hard to get to a position where our capital and interest repayments are all manageable.”

Away from the top figure, Hudson believes the overall picture looks encouraging.

“It is very positive,” he said.

“What I see is the top level EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) is up at nearly half-a-million pounds.

“Last year we turned negative figures into a positive at £150,000, and now we’re up at £484,000. That’s very promising.”

Ironically, given they won the title last year and played cricket to a very high standard throughout the summer, attendances in the LV County Championship fell from nearly 50,000 to 38,722.

Twenty20 Blast crowds suffered as well, down by around 25 per cent from 32,523. There was a similar reduction in the Royal London Cup, though, most importantly for Yorkshire, international cricket crowds saw only a small fall-off.

The club hope the signing of some big-name international stars for the 2015 season – Younis Khan, Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell and Kane Williamson – will see an increase in attendances.

Yorkshire stress they have not gone over their budget for overseas players this year, despite the calibre of player signed.

Further accounts reveal that during the last year the club received a £1m payment from the ECB which was used to repay the short-term loan taken out in 2013.

This was referred to in last year’s accounts, and in 2013 was used specifically to repay £500k of the Leeds City Council loan and to fund capital projects.

This £1m of income received in 2014 has been recognised as £500k of exceptional income and £500k of grant income.

Hudson concluded: “These are improved results after a period of heavy financial losses. Despite Test match ticket sales lower than the previous year, the one-day international staged against India was practically a sell-out.

“Commercial income has shown a significant move forward (10 per cent increase) as a result of increased sponsorship of the club. The year ahead will hope to see a continued improvement in revenue.”

The annual meeting of members will be held in the East Stand Long Room, at Headingley on Saturday, March 28, 10am.