Jon Lawrence, Head Groundsman at Weston- super-Mare Cricket Club, looks at the ‘real’ cost of providing cricket
The aim of this document is to analyse the ‘real’ costs involved in providing cricket. The overriding aim
is to show what good value membership fees and match fees are at the club and how much we are reliant on alternative sources of income (e.g bar sales etc.). I will attempt to
BUDGETS and VOLUNTEERS ...
take into account numerous amounts of voluntary work carried out by various members. The following has been assumed: A groundsman is employed for thirty hours a
week in season (fifteen hours per ground), and four hours per week out season, at a rate of £15 per hour. This would be commensurate with IOG pay scales for grounds manager/head groundsman.
a rate of £10 per hour for two hours a week - assuming a very rough work load of 100 hours a year.
Approximate outgoings Machinery maintenance Ground materials
£1500 £2000
Petrol £500
Club staff (ground, sec, coordinator) £16820
I’m assuming 200 matches per season and that all matches have the same nominal value. So, costs for the above on a per game basis are: Machinery £7.50 Materials £10 Petrol £2.50 Staff £84.10 Other much day costs are: Electricity Water
£4.98 £13.08 Cleaning £30
Bar staff (assuming one person working 4 hours @£12 per hour) £48 Sky TV
£4.21 Alarm £4.07
This gives us an overall cost of £208.45 per game.
What the above doesn't take into account:
1)Multiple games taking place on the same day. This would reduce the costs applicable to those games, for example bar staff costs.
2)The fact that many games are played on artificial.
3)The fact that many games are junior (colt) games.
4)The staff (sec & co-ordinator) hours are likely much higher than those accounted for.
5)The costs of providing artificial surfaces.
Therefore, £208.45 is the minimum it costs us to play a game of cricket on grass.
The season is defined as 30 weeks. The secretary and coordinator are both paid at
Stephen Morris, Head Groundsman at Bishops Castle Cricket Club puts some monetary value on the volunteer work at his club
A
fter a very thought provoking thread on the Pitchcare message board regarding voluntary work
by groundsman (
http://www.pitchcare.com/message/me ssage/16554), it occurred to me that I had never done a detailed cost analysis of what it takes to produce a cricket pitch. Here at Bishops Castle we run two
Saturday sides in the Shropshire League (1st XI in Division 2, 2nd XI in Division 7), a Sunday Friendly side and at least two youth sides (in 2008 U-11s & U-13s). Our ground (The Manor) is owned by the Sykes family and the club have played there as its full time home since 1946. I have maintained the ground since 1985 having been left in a hole (so to speak!!) so, all of my learning has been very much ‘on the job’, with the only education being the IOG Level A and B.
The figures that have been analysed
are for the last three seasons (2006-7- 8). Obviously, it is not an exact science but, nevertheless, quite interesting with relevance to the actual cost of producing cricket pitches. With regard to the maintenance of
the ground, I personally am responsible for everything from the boundary line in. I receive help with hedge cutting, mowing boundaries, pest control etc. All of the work is done on a voluntary basis. In the 2008 season, from the first
roll on April 2nd until ground renovations on the last Saturday in September, I undertook a total of 310
hours of actual work, with numerous other hours spent on lunchtime pitch inspections and generally keeping an eye on things, so the total hours was probably nearer 375-400 spent at the ground (as well as playing). The tasks undertaken by others
probably amount to 40-50 hours over the season, plus offsite maintenance of ground equipment undertaken by my brother-in law.
I have based the analysis purely on the hours worked by myself, over the three season period.
An average number of forty-five pitches per season were fully prepared at an average cost, based on our maintenance costs, of £28.10 per pitch, so £2.55 per home player. As a percentage of our total
expenditure over the period, the amount for grounds maintenance was 7.63%, with an additional 12% spent on purchasing machinery and tools. Over the period, an average of 305 hours per season were worked by myself, which, if multiplied by a notional hourly rate of £15, would take the average maintenance cost to £129.65 per pitch, so £11.79 per home player!! (we charge a £5 match fee & £50 subscription). So, it is patently obvious that, without the huge pool of voluntary labour, that club cricket would be a very elitist activity, but how many club committees and players actually realise the extent of this situation - especially when handing over club funds to professional players and such like.
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