In Conversation with… David Harker. The business of sport/is sport a business?

The business of sport/is sport a business?

This is a question that’s been vexing David Harker, award-winning CEO of Durham County Cricket Club (DCCC) for the last 15 years.

And no more so than now, at the start of a new county-cricket season (can twice County Champions Durham score a hat-trick?) with recently announced plans to deliver the Ashes Test in 2013  and ambitious business expansion plans that envisage a hotel and new Gateway conference centre to put the venue to work both within and outside the short cricket season.  Whilst the revenues and profile from international cricket are key to the Club’s continuing business success Durham’s coming of age as a Test facility is far more complex than the words suggest!  Long gone are the days when the English Cricket Board allocated important games to the Clubs!  Now securing high-profile fixtures is an expensive bidding process and all the venue trappings of a big club (albeit one of the most successful in England, both on and off the field) are a constant business headache. 

The combination of public and private sector financing including  a six year sponsorship deal with Emirates Airline helped DCCC begin to build the infrastructure it needed to compete on an equal footing with the other A-listed Cricket Clubs and now the Club is looking to raise equity funding to underwrite it’s multi-million pound expansion plans to deliver all year round revenues for the most attractively sited cricket club in the country. 

All importantly,  successful business performance has been matched by cricketing excellence that has seen Durham winning the County Championships two years running. 

The Club has undergone transformational change both on and off the field, from a nomadic minor county side to playing trophy-winning first class cricket with business successes to match.  It’s a complex business, but one that is coming of age after 15 years for both sets of spectators!

This event will take place on Thursday 14thApril, 5.30pm for a 6pm start at Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University. Tickets are priced at £20.00 + booking fee + vat. To book for this event please visit: http://www.newcastlebusinessschool.co.uk/EventDetails.aspx?eventguid=a3ba2e62-7d1d-4acc-a4a9-e45a62d60d74