Less than a week into the job the new chief executive of Leicestershire County Cricket Club is gearing up for tough times ahead as he tries to mitigate the effects of £1 million in lost revenue due to the lockdown.
With a potential August 1 start to the season being mooted, the new Leicestershire chief executive Sean Jarvis said he hoped to at least salvage some of the 2020 season.
Mr Jarvis, who has just taken over at the Grace Road ground after 14 years at Huddersfield Town, said with the support of the members, players, staff, fans and sponsors, the club would get through what has been a devastating year.
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And he said the “lean team” at Leicestershire, and help from the furlough system, meant they were hopeful of avoiding redundancies.
He said: “We have got some real big challenges ahead.
“We are going to need the business community and the people of Leicestershire to get behind the club and our aspirational plans to survive and then thrive.
“There’s no doubt that in that short term we’ve really got some hard work to do.
“But with our heritage and the passion that is in this sporting city we think we’ve got an opportunity to create a new chapter here with the likes of head coach Paul Nixon and great people behind the scenes and the great people like Upton Steel, Fischer, Next that back us.
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“With their help I do believe we will be able to thrive but it’s going to take a lot of hard work.
“We are looking at probably a loss of around £1 million, which is obviously a big cost for us to bear.
“But what I would say is the financial packages that have been provided by the ECB have been incredibly supportive.
“Going forward we want to reduce that, get more businesses involved, get more of the community involved.
“We are going to be all right but we’ve got an awful lot of work to do.
When the lockdown came in the club furloughed three-quarters of its 44-strong staff.
He said: “Revenue streams for the club literally stopped – all the functions, all the fixtures, everything.
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“The job retention scheme has been a godsend to the cricket club.
“We have worked with all our stakeholders – the council, the ECB, the sponsors and members and had a regular dialogue with those to navigate our way through the situation.
“The council and ECB have been outstanding in their advice and support for the club.
“The sponsors and members have also been really supportive. A lot of them said they were happy to support us – I’ve had members from Ireland, north Staffs, London, saying “whatever happens you can keep our membership fee”.
“So the response has been really heartwarming. Collectively the Foxes family have been outstanding and really helped us through it.”
He said the team had used lockdown to look at everything they can do to get ready for the return to normality – including 25 targets for the next 12-18 months “assuming that cricket begins again in the beginning of August”.
They cover the playing side of things, the commercial side, community, finance and the club as a whole.
Mr Jarvis said: “We are taking the opportunity to look at our culture, our strategy, our ethos, the way we operate as a business as well, improving our structures so that when we do come out of the situation – which is hopefully sooner rather than later – then we are ready to go and fighting fit.”
Those plans include at least a couple of decent sized concerts or West End-type shows in 2021, with discussions underway with promoters about potential bookings.
He said: “We want the Fischer County Ground to become the premium outdoor venue for Leicestershire – it really is something special.”
Another thing he would like to look at would be a cricket festival in Oakham.
Ms Jarvis, who was born and bred in the city and grew up following the football, cricket and rugby, started full time at Leicestershire last Tuesday, the day after leaving Huddersfield.
He has been on the board at Leicestershire for more than a year, and was approached by chairwoman Mehmooda Duke to take the top job.
He was the commercial director at Huddersfield doing, he said, everything from ground development to shirt sponsorship, squad development and the academy, growing the business and fan base and watching them reach the Premiership for two seasons from 2017.
He moved to Huddersfield from Oldham Athletic in 2006, at the time taking a dual role as director of business development with Huddersfield Town and the Huddersfield Giants.
The 54-year-old said: “Over that 14 years Huddersfield progressed up the football pyramid, from League One into the Championship then into the Premier League and then last year we were back down into the Championship, so it’s been an incredible journey along the way.
“They’ve got some cracking players in there. Andy King is up there now – he’s just signed a contract for a year.
“They’ve got a decent set-up. They’ve got a good training ground. So they’ll be all right, they just need to weather this mini-storm.”