Cricket club in a league of its own

HE doesn’t like cricket.

He loves it.

“I am incredibly passionate about cricket – a real advocate of the game,” says David Harker, chief executive of Durham County Cricket Club (DCCC). And you might expect that, as the man who has been at the helm of the Chester-le-Street-based club since 2000. But Mr Harker hasn’t always been a follower of the sport. “Football was my sport. I have no cricket pedigree, I didn’t play it when I was younger and was what I suppose you’d call a ‘casual supporter’.

“Like most people in the North-East, I liked my sport, and I liked to see local teams doing well, but I didn’t have much of an allegiance to cricket. Now, I am a convert. I have become a passionate supporter of the game; the spirit of cricket is something I really buy into.”

And it is this passion that has been a catalyst in the growth and development of the club, and remains a philosophy that is at the heart of the club and its 70-strong staff.

“Durham County Cricket Club has existed in one form or other since 1892 and, for most of its history, it was a minor county – in other words, an amateur organisation.

Having said that, it was the most successful minor county in terms of beating professional opposition and winning league titles as an amateur club.

“It was this success and passion that provided the impetus to consider putting in an application to become a first-class county.”

DCCC was successful in its bid to become a professional club in 1991, the first county in more than 70 years to be granted firstclass status.

At the time, Mr Hunter was working with the club as an accountant for PriceWaterHouse, as it then was. He was seconded to the club before making the move permanent in August 1991 – joining an executive team of only four.

“It was a small team, but a team made up of ambitious people.

The move to become a firstclass club was a massive step and showed the confidence and belief that the then chairman and his committee had.

“Of course, when you have got a really ambitious vision, it is easy to knock. The criteria to become a professional club was set extremely high, perhaps too high. It was a challenge, but it says a lot for us and for the region as a whole that we got through it.

It became a bit of a crusade and a rallying call for the North-East – not just the cricket supporters here, but the business community – to make this happen.”

And so, with the backing of the region, the team started its own crusade, to build a profitable and successful cricket club, becoming County Champions for the first time in 2008 and enjoying major developments off the pitch, such as the recent sponsorship deal with Emirates Airline.

“It hasn’t been easy. We’re now 20 years on from becoming a professional club and we’ve gone through a number of transitions in the meantime, like any other start-up business.

“There was that early pioneering stage, when simply the achievement of first-class status itself was seen to be a success.

But you can only live on that for so long and the club had to quite quickly transform itself into a genuine commercial operation,”

he says.

“Our growth has been gradual and, as we’ve developed the ground, it’s given us the chance to focus on the non-cricket side of the business and realise other ambitions. With the stadium came the opportunity to add more and become more than just a cricket club. That’s what we want to be, and need to be.”

An example of how the club uses its facilities to enhance its cricket and wider leisure offering can be found in its run of current big-hitting Friends Life Twenty20 matches.

In addition to the action in the middle, demand is being driven by the club’s ability to offer an extensive range of free events and activities off the pitch, promoting the fixtures to a wide audience.

Only about ten per cent of Durham County Cricket Club’s turnover is generated by gate receipts, season tickets and membership, and in total, only about half of the turnover comes from this and funding from the English Cricket Board.

“We only play cricket about 40 to 50 days of a year, and most of that will be non-profit making, therefore to feed the overheads that come with the stadium, we need to bring as much non-cricket revenue to the business as we can. That’s been the challenge of the past few years – to grow conference and banqueting bookings.

“We realised early on that hosting cricket, even international cricket, would not be enough to create a sustainable business.

And so we’ve had to be progressive.

We are constantly looking for new ways of making our assets work better for us.”

The club has significant plans to add to DCCC’s assets, giving more scope to expand its noncricket and hospitality offers.

Planning permission has been granted for the Gateway, a dedicated conference and banqueting facility, and outline permission has been given for a 150-room hotel. The two elements will form the beating heart of The Durham Experience, the brand which will drive the combined sporting, leisure and corporate offering of DCCC.

There are also plans to add to the ground capacity, increasing it from 8,000 to 9,500 this year and eventually to 20,000. The developments will allow the club to offer a full range of meetings and events, as well as exploring the market for concerts and weddings, and Mr Harker expects that upon completion, targeted for the summer of 2013, DCCC will become a consistently profitable business.

“We have this big venue, which is underused for cricket, and therefore we have to look at how else we could possibly use the venue. Because of its accessibility, the beauty of its location and the quality of the facilities, then it lends itself very well to meetings, conferences and banqueting, and other events such as concerts and the like.”

The new facilities will also make the Emirates Durham International Cricket Ground, home to the club, a more attractive international venue. The ground is already an established international stadium, having played host to its first Test match eight years ago.

The club has demonstrated just what a powerful force it is in the international cricket market by achieving another complete sell out of all tickets, with only a limited number of hospitality packages remaining for England’s one-day showdown with India, in September. And it does not get any bigger than the Ashes – in the summer of 2013, the ground will welcome up to 85,000 spectators, as it hosts a Test match for the much-coveted sporting trophy.

“The Ashes will see people travelling from not only all corners of the UK, but all corners of the world and staying in the region for multiple nights. That’s where the real economic benefits of this club come into play.

“We want to be seen and respected as a significant player in the North-East, and our ability to drive economic benefits for the region and County Durham in particular is an important calling card for us,” adds Mr Harker.

“I think that, as a club, we have a real part to play in putting the region on the map and shaping the image of the North-East. And the demise of regional development agency One North East, means that there is an increasing need for us to be plugged into networks, and to work together with other visitor attractions to boost tourism.

“The club plays an active role in the Durham tourism agenda, sitting on the board of and participating in the various industry groups of Visit County Durham, and as a member of the North East Chamber of Commerce’s Durham committee, I think that now, more than ever, being part of a network and finding a collective voice is vital.”

So, how can the cricket club continue to attract national and international spectators to the region?

“In this day and age, people are spoilt for choice in terms of where they can go. The North- East is a very warm, friendly place. We need to use that to make this club and region distinctive and appealing.

“We’re very much aware of the importance of advocacy too, and through the Durham County Cricket Club Foundation and our work with the community, we are doing what we can to ensure that young people – the next generation of spectators and customers – build an affinity with the game and realise that it is accessible and family friendly.

“I think what is most important is that we show people, here in the North East, that we’re ambitious, successful, and worthy of their support – and that’s what will help us to achieve even more.