Press Conference

Hampshire County Cricket Club today announces proposals for radical changes in its corporate and management structures, and a share placing that will raise £4 million.

Members will be asked to approve the proposals at the clubıs AGM on March 26. The proposed changes were approved unanimously by the Membersı Committee on Tuesday (February 20).

Funding of £4 million will be raised by a private placing for shares in the Hampshire County Cricket Ground Company Limited (HCCGCL). That placing will be fully underwritten by the Chairman, Rod Bransgrove, thus guaranteeing the funds.

The Club is currently a registered Friendly Society. The consent of Hampshire members is required at the AGM to its conversion to a private company limited by shares. That company will then become a wholly owned subsidiary of the HCCGCL. The interests of the members of Hampshire County Cricket Club will be fully protected.

The Board of HCCGCL will comprise Rod Bransgrove (Chairman), Tony Baker (Chief Executive), Tim Tremlett (Director of Cricket) and three new Directors who will include the former Hampshire captain, Mark Nicholas, as non-executive Director. The Club will have its own Management Board as well as a Membersı Committee which will act on behalf of members in a consultative capacity. The Membersı Committee will be empowered to appoint members to the Clubıs Management Board.

The £4 million that will be raised by means of the share placing, together with a further £1 million from other sources, will ensure the completion and fitting out of the Cricket Academy, health and fitness suite and atrium at The Hampshire Rose Bowl in time for the forthcoming season, and will make a considerable contribution towards other works planned for the end of the summer. Detailed arrangements are being made to provide the facilities for members, spectators, players and officials in the coming season that will eventually be located in the pavilion.

The final cost of this Centre of Sporting Excellence could be as much as £24 million, of which over £14 million will have come from the National Lottery Sports Fund, the sale of the Northlands Road ground, and grants from the Foundation for Sport & the Arts, the Sports Ground Initiative and the Environment Trusts, together with some £200,000 from members and other donors. An appeal is currently being made to members and sponsorship of the overall project is still being sought.

Rod Bransgrove said: "The new corporate structure will bring the Club into the 21st Century in respect of its commercial management, just as the state of the art Hampshire Rose Bowl will do for cricket.

"The Hampshire Rose Bowl will be the finest ground in the northern hemisphere and one of the best cricket stadiums in the world."

The AGM will be held at the Novotel Hotel in Southampton at 4.30pm on Monday, March 26. Formal notice of the AGM and the proposals will be sent out to members in the next few days.

© Hampshire CCC