Ringwood and District Cricket Association president says clubs must get their finances in order now or face ruin
With so many cricket clubs facing massive drops in sponsorship and funding, they need to get their post-COVID financial plan in order now, a Ringwood association president has warned.
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Ringwood and District Cricket Association president Michael Finn has pleaded with clubs to do the hard yards now and future proof for the challenges that will grace a post-COVID-19 landscape.
The RDCA boss was concerned too many clubs will delay planning their finances during the winter months and try to get it done on the eve of the next summer season.
By then he said, it will be too late.
“There’s so many clubs with their heads in the sand thinking they’ll come back in August and September and worry about it then,” he said. “Clubs need to be putting in their new financial modelling now. About 15 to 20 per cent (of clubs are doing that) if you’re lucky.
“My message to them would be ‘you don’t have the time to think, start planning now’.
“You can hit a brick wall at 100mph or hit a brick wall at 20mph, but you’re going to hit a brick wall.”
With sponsorship and funding streams drying up, Finn said many clubs that existed on a budget of $20,000 would be hoping for $12,000 but $7000 might be more realistic.
“The biggest issue is we need to have planning conversations now,” he said. “It’s money that makes the world go round. Most of the clubs will be lucky if they get 40 per cent of the sponsorship they have in the past.
“How will local clubs that are usually living off the smell of an oily rag anyway, how will they survive on the funds that we will be getting.”
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And, he added, COVID-19 is just the most recent hurdle in a long line of issues that have taken a heavy toll on local cricket.
“COVID-19 has dominated the conversation of late but it comes after bushfires and air quality issues,” Finn said. “We’ve (cricket) been impacted since pretty much last November.”
He said clubs needed a plan in place to get through COVID-19 and then another one for life beyond COVID-19.
In recent weeks Cricket Victoria has been forced to make a large number of staff redundant amid a deep financial crisis.
Community cricket and junior pathway programs will be the hardest hit in the restructure with the entire field force department slashed from 45 employees to just 12.
Finn said his association was still weighing up what effect the Cricket Victoria cutbacks would have.
“Too early to tell,” he said. “The full extent of what is happening at Cricket Victoria hasn’t been revealed yet. But my gut tells me it won’t be a trickle down it will be an avalanche.”
Finn said outgoing Cricket Victoria regional cricket manager Di Day, who opted to take a redundancy rather than contesting for one of the 12 community positions, would be sorely missed in the east.
“That will be a major blow,” he said. “Although she’s just one person, she’s a very significant person.”