“ The scheme (£8.2m development) should enable us to change our business model completely and generate the revenues needed to enable us to remain a competitive cricket force."

No it won't Mr Philip. It might raise revenues (as other clubs are doing) but all this cash will end up in player's pockets as usual, and Kent will be saddled with a multi-million pound invetsment which would break-even at best

wrote Serchers.

Without wishing to incur the wrath of many, how exactly does this ground redevelopment plan differ from ours ? Only asking !

I believe, Hotels, that the whole point of our development is that someone else pays for it and then pays us lucrative ground rent. That's why a hotel is so important to our projected revenue streams.

Thank you WBB.

In short, the hotel keeps us alive.

Hotels- nothing would please me more if we went back to the costings of the 1970s. Or had a Player willing to play for free. Or had buckets passed round the stands that miraculously collected a few thousand pounds a week.

But it ain't going to happen- I mean, do you think it will?

So we need the hotel.

No,it won't happen. I just find it ironic / odd that at a time when there has never apparently been more money in the game ( the SKY Sports and Five TV deal is worth £ 300m from 2010 to 2013 ), that more counties can't make it pay, and that the ECB handouts are getting reduced. The money's certainly going somewhere, as cricket slowly follows the path trodden by Premiership football.

This was the article re the plan for the funding of the proposed hotel.

http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/sport/4450122.Percy_feeling_pinch_at_New_Road/

What's the latest news ?

Serchers has said where the money is going- to players and their agents!

That's the sad thing about these so called 'business models. They're deeply flawed for the simple reason that the extra revenue will go out as quick as it comes in. The same will happen to Worcs. We might get an extra £100k/year (guesswork) but we all know exactly which black hole that'll go in.

Anyway, some positive news today on club finances. Glamorgan have made a profit of £338k, thanks to their heavily subsidised Ashes match.

Glamorgan

This supports Kim's point about how much reliance Warks have on Ashes matches.

Incidently, there was a remark spotted on Sussex forum saying that Hants had a £30m hand-out from their local council last year. Is this correct ?

Who subsidised the Cardiff Ashes match? The ECB? SWALEC? The Welsh Government?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/4921718.stm

Glamorgan chairman Paul Russell told BBC Wales on Tuesday that the club had applied to host the third Test between England and Australia in June or July 2009.
The plans to redevelop Sophia Gardens are opposed by some local residents and must go before a council planning decision.
The estimated cost is £7.4m, which will be raised through a mixture of council loans and private funding.

Northants sign Sehwag for T20.

Its getting annoying now.

To answer WBB, Cardiff secured the Ashes game because of multi-million pound support from the WDA (Welsh Development Agecy).

This funding made it impossible for other Test match Grounds (e.g. Lancashire) to bid for an Ashes Test on a level commercial playing field.

Re. Sehwag. It was only the year before last that the BCCI were not authorising county stints of their centrally / incrementally contracted players if those counties had any ICL links or blemishes whatsoever - I forget which Indian was blocked from fulfilling a playing contract with who but do remember at least one example with the reasons cited as the dressing room potentially being a bad influence. Looks like our failed approach to Ashish Nehra that year was just about the salary.

Call me a conspiracy theorist but this was the summer when out of the blue (or pink) Middx happended to win the T20 Cup when they were the only county that could have actually met the BCCI's criteria and qualified for the champions league. The stance has obviously softened somewhat (unless your name is Chris Cairns) as Somerset played last year with Alfie in the side and various players (Razzaq etc.) have now been granted amnesties if they have reneged on their ICL deals or they have expired or not been taken-up. At the time I don't think runners-up Kent could have gone to the inaugral event as they had fielded Azhar Mahmood and Justin Kemp. However the December tournament was eventually scrapped because of the Mumbai situation and a lack of a suitable window.

As it stands now every county is fielding at least one or two ex-ICL linked players with the exception of Essex, Lancs, Middx and suprise, suprise Surrey (having released Pedro Collins). Last year Derbyshire had 4 but now only 1 and Northants fielded 6 (ex-)ICL players and will be fielding 3 this year i.e. this is quite concilliatory given the uproar over the domestic season and champions league date clash. Viru couldn't have gone to a more 'rebellious' county that Northants.

Malvern Mike- WDA is now part of the Welsh Government after the 'bonfire of the quangos'.

Revenge of a sorts for those who find it of interest....when Glammy found that the then Minister of Culture Mr.Pugh was a Glammy Member, they co-opted him as a Director.

The only Minister in the Government to lose his seat in the Assembly in 2007 was....Mr.Pugh. He is now the CEO of the Snowdonia Society and the post of Minister of Heritage is now assigned to Plaid since this present Welsh coalition came into force. Plaid don't do cricket- and so Glamorgan were either very very lucky indeed; or the SWALEC project would have had to be transferred directly to the First or Second Minister's remit, as the Celtic Manor/Ryder Cup project has been.

Glamorgan are now on the Test Match Ground (TMG) conveyor belt and can't stop. They're playing with the big boys but the difference is that say 20 years ago, there were 6 TMGs so most got a bite of the apple when a 5 Test series came along.

And if you missed one year, then you could perhaps survive until the next season.

Now (if my calculations are correct), half of all First Class Counties are effectively TMGs and can stage a full Test. Add Glos to the list for ODIs.

So the competition is much more fierce and yet the risk / reward from staging a Test is so huge. And it puts the potential revenue from domestic cricket in the shade.

For Glamorgan, the contrast is already stark. Three Intenationals this season is truly massive for them yet they can't shift their domestic product - all eight T20 games for only £50 if bought by the end of April !!! On this basis, the cost for a ticket for one ODI is likely more than 8 x T20.

Says it all really.