Leicestershire Monthly Report - June 2021

Welcome to the latest edition of my CEO update. I have now officially been in post for just over 12 months, so this is a good time to reflect on what has happened at our Club.

In simple, with the pandemic, it has been an incredible challenge for all of us but, with your help and good old fashioned hard graft, we are still here! 

The Club still has some incredible challenges ahead but, as we have done so far, we will continue to rise to the challenge and give it our all “ as they say in these parts ‘Foxes Never Quit’. 

However, I would add that despite the difficulties faced, it has been a season of progress and future promise. At the end of this campaign, I will write a full reflection on the season both on and off the field and compare them to the 25 KPI’s (Key Performance we set ourselves. I will ensure this is featured on our website.

Back to the here and now. As we all know, the easing of lockdown has been delayed by another month (roll on 19th July!). This news came as a real body blow to us and has caused us a number of issues. Leading up to June 21st, the commercial team were gearing up for bumper crowds and increased hospitality bookings. However, with the delay, this now means we have had to roll back on those plans (which not only means loss of revenues but increased resources allocated to admin duties). This change ultimately affects our cash flow, particularly as the delay in the easing of lockdown is now post the usually lucrative T20 Vitality Blast fixtures. To put it into context, we would ordinarily have sell-out crowds for the Friday night fixtures versus Yorkshire Vikings and Notts Outlaws, sadly the announcement now means that we are restricted to just under 800 people at the Uptonsteel County Ground. 

Financially, this results effectively in a loss of over 500k’s worth of commercial income. Rather than labour on the doom and gloom, my message is clear and hopefully loud…we are progressing as a Club and we will not allow the pandemic to beat us but, I would urge our supporters to really back the Club particularly post 19th July. We are going to need you to come out in force,  for the Royal London Cup fixtures. Additionally, I would ask that you support our many non-cricket commercial offerings too including the concerts, West End shows and Outdoor Cinema events that we have planned for when the season finishes. Your support is the lifeblood of this great Club.

Personally, I continue to love the challenge and will promise, even though it may mean some changes, we will build on the strong foundations we are laying…

Onto our five-pillar update…

Firstly cricket. I am sure we all agree our (first part) LV= County Championship has finished on a real high with convincing back-to-back wins versus Middlesex and Gloucestershire. With one of the youngest teams in the tournament, I think we are witnessing the birth of a future side of real capabilities. I for one, am excited about the last two LV= County Championship fixtures and what that may bring us, as the conference system then breaks off to its divisions. There are certainly exciting times ahead.

As for the T20 Vitality Blast campaign, it was a very tough start. On another occasion, I think we could have won 4 of the 5 opening games. In fact whilst we lost at Emerald Headingley, it was a joy to watch our team fight back and almost claim a famous victory. I think despite the loss, we came out of Yorkshire Vikings with our heads held high and gained a lot of respect. The last three games (Northamptonshire Steelbacks, Derbyshire Falcons and Yorkshire Vikings, at the time of writing this report) have, for me, demonstrated what our team is capable of and how well they can perform collectively, with three very comprehensive back-to-back-to-back-wins. Again, we are one of the youngest teams in the tournament but with a lot of potential. If all our parts click together, then who knows what we can achieve. 

To emphasise that we have a progressive team, we have seen, this season, no less than 20 personal bests for Leicestershire achieved by our players. I congratulate them and the coaching team for their determination and development. 

We are now approaching the halfway stage of our cricket season, so based upon the first half, there is clearly going to be an exciting second half… so don’t miss out!

Over the past 12 months, we as a Club have been determined to improve our governance and policies. In other words, get our house in-order to achieve the standards set by the ECB. This challenge has come under the jurisdiction of our Company Pillar. Whilst we acknowledge there is still some work to do, we have made huge strides across many areas. For example, we now regularly review our ‘risk register’ at the Club and ensure we tackle issues we may have. Ground development is high on our agenda and as a ‘company team’, we have now begun to properly review Grace Road to see how we can improve things. Whilst I can't promise overnight changes for our ground, I can promise that we will work hard to review how things operate and how we can possibly improve them. I would ask our supporters, as we have limited resources and a small team, to please have patience with us.

At this point, I would like to commend the ground staff for the work they have done in preparing the pitch this season. From the other stadiums I have visited, our square is one of, if not the best in the country.

As alluded to above, it has been a real challenge for the Commercial Pillar. Initially, the team were gearing up to a bumper June with people booking hospitality and purchasing tickets for our T20 campaign. Sadly the Government announcement has delayed this for us. Again, please bear with us as we deal with the rollback and amendments to our plans.

However as mentioned last month, a welcome addition to the Uptonsteel County Ground has been the new Marquee. Whilst it is in the early stages of its uses (limited by the Covid restrictions too), the early reaction from the people that are using the marquee for hospitality has been outstanding. They are commenting on, not only the great environment but, the great views that it offers. I know we are excited about the potential this facility can bring to the Club. When you are next at the ground try and take five minutes to have a quick look, it's definitely an experience worth booking for a special occasion. 

This summer our Community team have been as active as they can be and it has been great to see cricket teams of all ages, including the All Stars and Dynamos programmes being so successful. I also had the pleasure this month to go and witness our Senior Club Network Officer, Andy Hibberd deliver a coaching session to future coaches. Not only was it great to see another of our local grounds (Rothley Park), but to see how our future coaches were being trained. For me, it was outstanding to see males and females working together on honing their coaching skills and some of the brilliant exercises. Witnessing over 20 future coaches in action was also really heart-warming and demonstrates there is a real appetite for recreational cricket in our county. 

I am also hearing from the Community Pillar that our Summer Camps that run across July and August, at a number of local clubs, are proving to be very popular too. Consequently, I would urge you to check out the official social media channels for details. I know the programmes cater for all levels of cricket, ranging from children who have played at Club level, to those who are just starting. I am looking forward to attending one of them and seeing them in action.

If you have read in previous updates you will have seen that we are undertaking our inaugural charity bike ride for the Foundation “ entitled Tour De Foxes. Sadly my training hasn’t gone to plan but, maybe there is still a little bit of time left before we embark on the 80-mile challenge. If you can please sponsor the riders, as we aim to raise valuable funds for our Foundation, which supports local charities Alex’s Wish and Healing Little Hearts. 

I also want to shout out to our Women’s and Girls section, who are doing a fantastic job at the moment and it's great seeing their victories become a regular occurrence. I would also encourage our supporters to take a moment out to read up on the Women's Big Cricket Month.  

Lastly, on the Community Pillar, we have now just received our results from the Big Cricket survey and it has been fascinating to see the feedback received. Over the next month, we aim to bring you those results and an initiative that will help us continue to build the Club.

Lastly the Cash Pillar. A common thread in my reports over the past 12 months has been the difficult position we find ourselves in, like many people, due to the pandemic. Our Cash Pillar has implemented a mitigation strategy that has minimised costs and kept close control over our cash flows. We continue to implement this strategy and as mentioned in a recent Foxes TV interview, the impact on our club is loss of revenues to the tune of circa £2m. Once again, as a consequence of this, I would urge our supporters to continue to back the Club and help us attract new members, supporters, official partners and fans. From July 19th, all being well, we should begin to return to normality and as such, I would urge you to back the Club and get behind us.

Whilst these remain challenging times for the Club, we are now beginning the new chapter and one with your help I am certain will make for an exciting read.

Up the Running Foxes 

Sean