I have had two or three emails and messages asking if Derbyshire County Cricket Club has major issues now that Aspire, Achieve, Advance (3aaa) has announced that it has ceased trading.
The short answer is 'no'. I feel sorry, as we all do, for those whose careers and lives are impacted by this closure, but from a cricket perspective it is no different than if a deal with a sponsor comes to an end.
The county will need to find both a new ground and shirt sponsor, but I have no doubt that they will already be on the case and speaking to people about this.
Whether the two end up being the same company is a moot point, but there will be companies out there who want to work with and have their name associated with a top sports club.
From our perspective, this couldn't have happened, if it had to do so, at a better time, as they now have around six months to sort things ahead of the 2019 season.
They will.
Do we know whether we are owed money though? If they have been struggling do we know for certain they have made all their commitments to us? Echo comments about the people effected. Hope they get fixed up soon.
ReplyDeleteIt's a significant amount of money at stake - reported in the further education media as £480k in just over 3 years to May this year. Hopefully, this year's money is banked (assuming it's all cash rather than in-kind payments) but if not, Derbyshire could have a sizeable hole in its budget if 3aaa's liabilities are not paid In full by the administrators or the successor provider.
ReplyDeleteI think that regardless of the outcome, though, Derbyshire would be well advised to look for a new sponsor in any case. Even if there's no wrongdoing in the current case, the whole apprenticeship sector is distinctly dodgy, with public money being spent on a public service by private companies with a profit-making motive. 3aaa isn't the first provider to run into problems, and the biggest was heavily criticised a few weeks ago by the Public Accounts Committee for sports sponsorship. Quite apart from whatever other issues are being investigated by the police and EFSA, you would think that the sponsorship of Derbyshire cricket would have been challenged anyway. I'm not comfortable with taxpayers' money being spent on sports clubs, even if it's one that I support, so a change to proper private sponsorship would be welcome from my point of view.