Interesting article on Durham 's financial revival
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Durham finances
- Thread starter Parkside
- Start date
Certainly sir
In the year Bostock joined, Durham lost £1.15 million on a turnover of about £5 million. Fast-forward to 2023 and turnover has increased to slightly more than £8 million and the last year’s accounts showed a profit of £333,000. From 2019 onwards, the club have made a profit, albeit sometimes a small one, every year. Bostock puts that down to a combination of factors, as well as luck and circumstance.
He explains: “2019 was a World Cup year, which came at a really good time for us, and that allowed us immediately to turn that £1.15 million loss into a profit of £139,000. That got us kick-started. Another factor, and there is no getting away from it, is the Hundred and the £1.3 million that every county gets because of it. We are not on our own — I suspect a dozen counties may well have been under water without that — so for all the criticism, it has been a game-changer for a lot of us.
“The other factor was Covid. As bad as Covid was for everyone, it allowed an opportunity for us to reimagine and restructure the business. We weren’t carrying a lot of debt compared to what you might see now in the game, but we were carrying debt we couldn’t sustain; expensive debt because of what had happened before. We ended up having parcels of debt at not exactly loan-shark rates, but very significant rates — 8 or 9 per cent when interest rates were low.”
The pandemic gave them a chance to restructure the debt, taking advantage of Covid loans at next-to-zero interest rates.
Sunderland-born England Under-19 captain McKinney is on a Durham School scholarship
REX FEATURES
“That was a game-changer for us: alongside the additional monies from the Hundred, we started to make headway,” Bostock adds. “From when I joined, we have now reduced our debt by about 40 per cent.
“More importantly, the debt that remains is not interest-bearing because a large portion of it is to the council. We will have repaid debt to the council completely by 2026. That’s a big story for us and it’s been really important to do that because we want and are getting the council’s support for the next big project: the hotel, which is about to go into full planning.”
Covid also enabled Durham to buy themselves out of a joint-venture hospitality contract and start their own company, Durham Events. Previously, that business — from pop concerts, conferences etc — was bringing in only about £125,000 a year whereas now it earns about £500,000.
In the year Bostock joined, Durham lost £1.15 million on a turnover of about £5 million. Fast-forward to 2023 and turnover has increased to slightly more than £8 million and the last year’s accounts showed a profit of £333,000. From 2019 onwards, the club have made a profit, albeit sometimes a small one, every year. Bostock puts that down to a combination of factors, as well as luck and circumstance.
He explains: “2019 was a World Cup year, which came at a really good time for us, and that allowed us immediately to turn that £1.15 million loss into a profit of £139,000. That got us kick-started. Another factor, and there is no getting away from it, is the Hundred and the £1.3 million that every county gets because of it. We are not on our own — I suspect a dozen counties may well have been under water without that — so for all the criticism, it has been a game-changer for a lot of us.
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“The other factor was Covid. As bad as Covid was for everyone, it allowed an opportunity for us to reimagine and restructure the business. We weren’t carrying a lot of debt compared to what you might see now in the game, but we were carrying debt we couldn’t sustain; expensive debt because of what had happened before. We ended up having parcels of debt at not exactly loan-shark rates, but very significant rates — 8 or 9 per cent when interest rates were low.”
The pandemic gave them a chance to restructure the debt, taking advantage of Covid loans at next-to-zero interest rates.
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Sunderland-born England Under-19 captain McKinney is on a Durham School scholarship
REX FEATURES
“That was a game-changer for us: alongside the additional monies from the Hundred, we started to make headway,” Bostock adds. “From when I joined, we have now reduced our debt by about 40 per cent.
“More importantly, the debt that remains is not interest-bearing because a large portion of it is to the council. We will have repaid debt to the council completely by 2026. That’s a big story for us and it’s been really important to do that because we want and are getting the council’s support for the next big project: the hotel, which is about to go into full planning.”
Covid also enabled Durham to buy themselves out of a joint-venture hospitality contract and start their own company, Durham Events. Previously, that business — from pop concerts, conferences etc — was bringing in only about £125,000 a year whereas now it earns about £500,000.
Twisted
Striker
Of course FTECB could have just given every country 4m instead of 1.3m, not invented the 16.4 and still been better off financially.
Exactly and FTECB didn't "give" every county anything; all revenue is the counties anyway as they supply the source of the revenue i.e. the players.
