Yorkshire report HUGE loss of £7.1m despite Headingley hosting England’s lucrative Ashes win over Australia last summer

Yorkshire have reported a staggering £7.1million annual loss despite hosting a lucrative Ashes Test match last year.

In his chairman’s statement, within the club’s annual accounts released yesterday (on Friday), Colin Graves said while 2023 ‘should have been productive and profitable…in the event there was a huge trading loss,’ and branded it ‘Yorkshire’s ANNUS HORRIBILIS!’

In the finance report, Paul Cooke, Yorkshire’s acting finance director, wrote that a number of factors ‘including exceptional items and a writedown in the value of the stadium, have contributed to an overall loss of £7.1m for the year.’

That figure incorporates a trading deficit of £2.8million plus a depreciation of £4.3million in the club’s assets – including the valuation of its Headingley home and a forecast of future cashflows, including international matches allocated to Yorkshire up until the 2031 season – to £24.2m.

While England’s victory over Australia last July resulted in a significant surge in revenue year on year, from £14.1m in 2022 to £18.2m, and saw Yorkshire make a profit of £4.1million for a match that lasted only four of the five scheduled days, the balance sheet was pushed into the red by spiralling costs, with exceptional expenditure alone – including a compensation bill for the unlawful sacking of 16 members of staff during Lord Patel’s tenure as chair – logged at £1.9million.

England’s Ashes win over Australia did provide a surge but the club still finds itself in debt 

A review of the club commissioned by Graves when he returned as the board’s figurehead earlier this year concluded an overspend in multiple areas of a business that is now saddled with around £23.5million of debt.

Change has already taken place within the club executive in 2024, with Darren Gough ending his £250,000 role as director of cricket last month and Stephen Vaughan, the chief executive, understood to be working his notice period.

The accounts also confirmed that Yorkshire have received some of their payments from the ECB ahead of schedule to aid cash flow, that the trustees of the Graves Trusts had agreed in principle to extend the repayment date of the club’s secured loans from October 2024 to October 2025 and that Graves himself had pledged £1million to cover costs for this county season, with a further promise to cover financial liabilities in the event of additional funding not being obtained.