Hundred sell-off saved up to six counties from possible collapse, new report finds

The windfall generated by the sale of shares in the eight Hundred franchises may have saved as many as six first-class counties from imminent crisis and possible collapse, according to an expert in sport finance who co-wrote a new report into county cricket.

The Leonard Curtis Cricket Finance Report analysed the finances of each of the 18 first-class counties over a decade, identifying a “yawning gap” between the results of the most successful teams – with Surrey by some distance the most profitable – and the less well-off. Of the £306.13m generated by the 18 counties in 2023 just three teams – Surrey, Lancashire and Warwickshire, with income boosted in all three cases by hosting Ashes Tests that year – were responsible for 44%. By contrast the three poorest counties – Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire – between them generated just 5.56% of the total.

The ECB’s annual payment to counties, a total of just over £88m in 2023, made up 27% of their combined income, but while it constituted just 6% of Surrey’s it made up 71% of Northamptonshire’s, and 67% of Leicestershire’s. The report suggests that the fact counties do not themselves control such a vital revenue stream could threaten their financial sustainability, particularly given concerns that it will be reduced if income from future domestic and international media rights sales decreases.

“We would probably have been talking about 18 counties going down to 14, 13, 12 even,” said professor Rob Wilson, the report’s co-author. “Essentially the picture is counties overly reliant on ECB funding. And if you take that ECB funding out, they are technically insolvent. They simply do not make enough money to wash their face. Then you have this unicorn that is the Hundred which will to a degree solve some of those short and medium-term financial issues.”

Wilson described the arrival of the Hundred money as “a crucial turning point in the domestic game … an extraordinary opportunity, but it has to be managed with real prudence”.

“It’s really easy if you just look at the numbers to say those four counties are almost insolvent because they don’t generate enough to sustain themselves. So without that grant, they disappear,” he said. “The reality is that the ECB revenue structure enables the counties to exist in the formats they’re in. And that’s going to be turbocharged with the Hundred money. What’s important is that the ECB look after that money and how they distribute it so the clubs don’t waste it.”

But while counties are due to profit from the £520m generated by the sale of Hundred franchises, 65% of that would disappear instantly if they simply paid off the debt they held in 2023, a combined £338.6m, most of it concentrated in the clubs with the highest annual incomes.

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The difference between the financial might of different counties is such that though Durham’s annual spend on staff salary costs, as a percentage of their revenue, was almost the same as Surrey’s (17% and 18% respectively), their total salary bill was £1.39m, to Surrey’s £11.6m. Given that disparity it is perhaps no surprise that the report’s analysis of competitive balance in domestic cricket is not encouraging. “Overall the general trend appears to be declining,” it concludes, “and this should present a cause of concern.”

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