Cricket: pounds 30,000 loss puts Stratford at risk.Byline: By PAUL BOLTON THE future of county cricket County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. Teams First-class counties The eighteen traditional English first-class counties are the main cricket teams in England. in Stratford-upon-Avon looks bleak after Warwickshire revealed that last month's five-day festival made an operating loss operating loss The excess of operating expenses over revenue. As with operating income, operating losses exclude revenues and expenses from operations that are not considered a regular part of the business. Also called deficit. Compare operating income. of around pounds 30,000. The bill will be picked up by Warwickshire County Council, who agreed to underwrite To insure; to sell an issue of stocks and bonds or to guarantee the purchase of unsold stocks and bonds after a public issue. The word underwrite has two meanings. the costs of the Championship match against Hampshire and the totesport League game against Scotland, but the deficit is almost twice the amount originally predicted. The county council, who committed themselves to the festival only in early April, have yet to decide whether they will support county cricket in Stratford next year. But they are bound to come under pressure from some ratepayers for having to foot such a hefty bill. Warwickshire are keen to make the Stratford Festival Stratford Festival Canadian summer theatrical festival. The foremost classical repertory theatre in North America, it was founded by Tom Patterson in Stratford, Ontario, in 1953. an annual event but will commit themselves to taking county cricket away from Edgbaston only if the figures stack up. It costs an estimated pounds 50,000 to take cricket to their only outground and they will need continued financial support from the county council or another major sponsor if Championship cricket is to return to Swans Nest Lane for a third year. Involvement 'The fact that we had only two out of four days of Championship cricket means that the county council will have to take a bigger financial hit than they anticipated,' said Dennis Amiss Dennis Leslie Amiss (born April 7 1943 in Harborne, Birmingham, Warwickshire) was an English cricketer and cricket administrator. He played cricket for both Warwickshire County Cricket Club and England. , Warwickshire's chief executive. 'We are grateful to the county council for their financial support and we hope that they will want to retain an involvement in the future. 'Obviously they need to consider the financial implications and we need to sit down and work out the practicalities of going back to Stratford. 'To play county cricket there we need someone to underwrite the costs as the council did this year and Chase Midland did in 2004. 'If we don't get that support then the figures simply do not stack up to make it a viable venture.' Warwickshire's general purposes and finance sub-committee will debate Stratford's future at a meeting on July 12 and a recommendation on whether to keep faith with the outground will be made to the full committee for a final decision. |
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