EXCLUSIVE Yorkshire cash CRISIS: ECB are helping to pay staff wages as the heating breaks down in Headingley pavilion with the club waiting for Mike Ashley’s rescue
- Mail Sport revealed Ashley will buy Headingley to help clear Yorkshire’s debts
- In the meantime, the club is receiving advances on ECB central funding
- Yorkshire owe money to several creditors, including events company G4S
Yorkshire have received hundreds of thousands of pounds from the ECB to help pay staff wages amidst a worsening cash crisis which has seen the club fail to pay match-day personnel including caterers, security and stewards.
Mail Sport has learned a number of Yorkshire’s regular suppliers and contractors have not received money they are owed in recent months, with the club waiting for a refinancing package offered by former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley to be completed.
Yorkshire are understood to be prioritising paying staff salaries, with their monthly wage-bill totalling around £500,000, despite grappling with a significant backlog of unpaid bills.
A further setback to demoralised employees occurred last week when the heating broke down in the pavilion at Headingley, leaving some staff working in freezing conditions, although that problem has since been rectified.
The ECB are believed to have been providing financial assistance to Yorkshire for at least two months in what one source involved in brokering the arrangement described as a revolving credit facility.
Yorkshire CCC are relying on advance funding and credit from the ECB to pay their bills
Former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley (left) is set to buy their Headingley ground for £23m
Yorkshire have been receiving advances on ECB central funding and Test match receipts
The money in question is understood to be an advance on some of the central funding the ECB provide to all counties rather than additional money, as well as an advance on future ticket sales for next year’s T20 internationals against Pakistan at Headingley.
The ECB agreed to help Yorkshire after receiving reassurances that a deal to refinance the club’s £15million debts to former chairman Colin Graves and provide working capital for next year was close to completion.
Mail Sport revealed last month that Yorkshire had agreed to sell Headingley to Ashley’s Frasers Group for £23million in a deal that would see the club lease back the ground with an option to buy it back at a later date, but it has yet to be finalised.
An alternative re-financing package proposed by Graves also remains on the table.
Yorkshire chief executive Stephen Vaughan told Mail Sport: ‘YCCC works in close partnership and has ongoing communication with its suppliers and contractors to ensure we deliver excellent service to the valued members and guests who visit us at Headingley stadium.
‘All of the Club’s suppliers and contractors are aware that YCCC is currently going through re-financing and the club hugely appreciates the support and understanding they continue to provide while we navigate through this process.’
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