Colin Povey has defended Warwickshire’s decision to charge members for admission to the Bears’ three-day friendly against England at Edgbaston last week.
The Bears’ policy did not go down well with some members and provoked some heated comments from visitors to the club office during the match.
But it was financially vindicated by a profit of £35,000 registered over the three days.
A big factor in that surplus was revenue brought in by non-members allowed to use facilities usually reserved for members and chief executive Povey reckons the club, landed with a bonus fixture against the national team, got the balance about right.
“The match threw up a range of issues as you might expect and some members were not happy about paying,” he said. “But we took the view that this was an extra game and a prestige game like the later stage of a one-day tournament so it was reasonable to bring in an admission charge.
“The decision to allow non-members into members’ areas brought in extra revenue and, along with the footfall through the shop, contributed to us making £35,000 on the game.
“I think, all things considered, it went pretty well.
The England lads were pleased with the size of the crowd and the atmosphere on the first two days. It was a shame that the weather cut into the third day and the game petered out a bit.”
The opening day of Warwickshire’s championship match against Sussex yesterday never got going enough to peter out. Just 15 minutes play were possible in the morning before the first in a series of heavy showers arrived.
Put into bat, the Bears faced just four overs in which they lost Tony Frost, lbw shuffling across his stumps to Yasir Arafat.
That brought in Ian Bell but he had not faced a ball before the downpour arrived. Bell will resume this morning, assuming that no England batsman did a fetlock in Cardiff overnight. The 27-year-old is being allowed to play here by the ECB with a caveat that he would be instantly called to south Wales for Ashes duty in am emergency.
