Hello All
Hope you're wintering well. On my blog I have a review of the financial position of 17 of the 18 first class counties, which includes a financial stability league table. And Warwickshire are off the bottom. Link below.
https://sideoncricket.blogspot.com/2024/02/bentley-forbes-consulting-rankings-2022.html
Thanks Reabank. I will set this aside to have a full read in the future. Appreciate your analysis. I'm a part-qualified accountant, alas, and can't fully decipher the results from source. So defer to you as the fully-qualified analyst!
Hello All
Hope you're well enjoying World Cup, T20 and the Euros. I have rather belatedly done a review of Warwickshire's 2023 financial statements. Link to the post is
https://sideonviewcricket.substack.com/p/warwickshire-county-cricket-club
I've moved the blog to substack, if you click on the subscribe button, you'll get updates whenever I post.
Although it says subscribe you won't be charged (now or ever) it's just the way substack works.
Thanks for this.
As usual, it's a really interesting read, if slightly depressing in places.
Regarding the pavilion redevelopment, I guess it's impossible to say what would have happened if it hadn't been done; but it's reasonable to assume that Edgbaston's allocation of major international matches would have dried up more or less completely. I actually loved the old pavilion and spent many happy hours there but it was no longer fit for purpose.
I often looked at our old pavilion and thought "How on earth do we ever get Test matches with a pavilion like that..." but even though I was happy that we had a new one, I cannot say it is very pleasing to the eye or a place where I sat a lot during games. It was all based on being big and getting loads of people in but when you are a business, I suppose this sort of pavilion is needed in terms of making a profit.
Very interesting, thanks.
Yes I can't escape the thought that the redevelopment of the Raglan and Priory stands is merely a vanity project of Cain etc It just feels a bit unnecessary and over the top. When will the building and redevelopment work ever end. Its a bit unsettling.
Morning everyone. Warwickshire's 2024 accounts have been published, my review and some speculation on The Hundred sale and future plans is all here (https://sideonviewcricket.substack.com/p/warwickshire-2024-accounts)
Thanks, Reabank. As always, a really interesting take on the accounts, helpful to those of us whose eye glaze over at the sight of a balance sheet or set of accounts.
Hello all
Hope you are wintering well. I do an annual review of the finances of the first class counties and the latest of those can be found here
https://sideonviewcricket.substack.com/p/bentley-forbes-county-cricket-financial
Thanks for this, Reabank.
Apart from the financial assessments that are as interesting as usual, I was struck by what you highlighted in your separate but linked Warwickshire assessment - namely what is missing from the Club's "playing pillar" which talks about “ creating sustainable success for the Bears (20 overs cricket) and Birmingham Phoenix (men and women’s)” (Hundred teams)." In other words, there is no mention of success in the County Championship or the 50 over competitions. Also the fact that there is no reference to the development of players for men’s and women’s international teams.
I can recall that when I interviewed ex-CEO Neil Snowball a few years ago, he was very specific on including winning trophies across all competitions and developing international players as key objectives. If these really have been dropped, that is very disappointing.
Hello Gerry
Yes it's an odd one. I went to the members briefing during the last cc game and I think Stuart Cain did say success in the championship was an aim, so hopefully a slip. Won't be long before we have the 2025 accounts and it will be interesting to see if the wording has changed.
Yes, I tend to think that maybe it was a slip.
Just to go back to what Neil Snowball said, it was all of ten years ago:
"On the cricket side, I don’t think it’s a glib statement to say that we should be competing in all three forms of the game. I would like to think that we had won some silverware in each of those [next] five years. That is a challenge we should set ourselves and what we should aspire to do.
We’ve got a target at the moment of having 40% of our players home grown. I’d like to see that increased to north of 50%.
I’d also like to see the next generation of Warwickshire players playing for England."
From what I’ve seen Stuart has tried to understand WCCC which Snowball never really did.
Albeit there was a Chairman then who didn’t really care about the Club’s identity either. And was primarily a banker trying to service the debt and obsessed with the Stadium (sic) over the actual Club.