HONORARY TREASURER’S REPORT 

23rd October 2011 

All in all the management committee is generally pleased with the Club’s current financial position as at June 30th when compared with our position a year ago. The Facilities Management team has been hard at work trying to correct some of the problems that we were faced with coming into fiscal 2011 and several of the action plans coming out of the strategic plan of 2010 have been completed while others continue to be addressed. The improvement in cash flow through the subscriptions and entrance fees increases have allowed your management the possibility of enhancing some of the Club’s facilities and we will continue to drive towards improving the maintenance programs so as to ensure the sustainability of the Club’s assets. While the Government of T & T has suggested that efforts are being made to stimulate the economy there have been no significant initiatives to have offered any change to what is substantively a stagnant situation. In fact the word out there is that the CSO is anticipating a contraction in the economy of close to 1.5% for the fiscal year 2011, along with which we have seen a budget deficit being declared for the ensuing year of some $7.6bn. This seems to only exacerbate our dilemma as a well-resourced country whose natural wealth doesn’t ever seem to be able to cover our most basic social requirements. The fall-out from this as it pertains to the QPCC is simply that the disposable income of the population at large remains constrained and our subsidiary revenue streams outside of subscriptions and box-holders’ license fees continue to decline in spite of extra efforts being exerted by both management and staff to be innovative towards attracting more activity to our Club. In fact, in spite of losing the “Soca Monarch” and “Temperature” this year to other venues, which would normally have netted us over $500k, we have been able to keep the reduction in overall revenue on the hire of grounds to just over $100k which is indicative of the sterling efforts on the part of the Events Management team along with those of the sub-committees, not least of which to be mentioned are the marketing committee and of course our Hockey section.  

In terms of capital expenditure work has begun on the long-overdue installation of the elevator in the Carib Stand and we are also pleased to re-introduce tennis to the club albeit with only the one tennis court. The situation regarding the Dos Santos stand will no doubt require cash and we would be well advised to accumulate same to ready ourselves for whichever route we collectively choose to embark in this regard. It is also one of our priorities to find a sustainable and economic solution towards the multi-purpose utilization of the ground through which we can enhance our attraction as a sporting arena not solely for cricket but for a wider range of sporting activities whereby our stakeholders will be further satisfied by way of entertainment and financial gain on a more frequent basis. General improvements to other existing sporting facilities within the Club must also be addressed in the short to medium term, not least of which are the outdoor and indoor cricket nets.  

One of the areas of corporate financial involvement from which we had expected to benefit this year is the “peoples’ canvass” or the “Urban Art” project – given the challenging economic environment where the advertising dollar has so many competing avenues of attraction, even this product for nationally-cultural enhancement has found difficulty in securing benefactors or participants.  

The above barriers however have not stalled our ambition for strengthening our purpose towards achieving our mission statement of “providing its Members and other stakeholders the opportunity to participate actively in the widest possible range of sporting, recreational and social activities within a premier sporting facility and to provide entertainment in the form of international sporting and other events”.  

You may remember that we had pointed out in last year’s report that we had signed an outsource agreement with a third party aimed at attracting sponsorship and events’ growth for both sporting and entertainment functions – simply put, this initiative has borne absolutely no fruit and we have since reverted to our own devices  –  the fact is that our own marketing sub-committee has stepped up to the plate in developing new initiatives towards this end and personally, I am much more confident about the results that can be expected based on the approach and the ownership thus far – this group has an extensive network which is extremely powerful and the management committee is quietly confident of their ability to enhance the Club’s attractiveness to potential sponsorship arrangements.

The increase in Operating Revenue is largely the result of the increased subscriptions and entrance fees amounting collectively to $2.6m. On the expense side the most notable increase was maintenance and upgrade to facilities of $800k largely through the drive to bring our stadium back into a more appropriately maintained state.

Advertising & Promotions 

We had several administrative positions advertised throughout the year accounting for some of the increase from $43k to $126k. The bulk of the expense however was for 50% of the cost of the replay screen used during the T20 tournament in July 2010 which amounted to $78k. 

In the case of the revenue associated with the above we enjoyed $375k from the Urban Art Project in 2010 which was absent in 2011 however the replay screen for the T20 cricket brought in some $175k gross.

Club’s Social Events 

Many of the Club’s events this year were not as well patronized as in the past, an example of which was the Wendy Sheppard show. There were also other items which offered some viewing entertainment for the members such as the hosting of the New South Wales Cricket team which had no associated revenue. The main reason however for the large delta between 2010 and 2011 was the White Hat revenues were mostly netted off in this account within fiscal 2010 while the pay outs for the winners hit the account in 2011 resulting in a net credit of $56k in 2010 and a net debit of $43k in 2011.

Entertainment, sporting disciplines, management & sub-committees 

There was an increase in the cost of the annual cricket dinner of some $18k while the Calypso show cost about $10k more than the previous year – the two items alone were largely accountable for the net increase in this expense item of some $44k.   

Maintenance and upgrade to sporting facilities  

There was a drive this year to bring our facilities back into the desired state of repair. Given the lack of cash in the past we had been unable to keep our maintenance programs up to speed and therefore had much to do this year to continue with upgrades. Added to this there was an entry originating in 2008 whereby some $322k was set up as a provision within accruals for upgrades for the World Cup in 2007. This liability was reversed in 2010 from the Maintenance and Upgrade Expense account, however the original entry was actually debited to the Fixed Assets Account in 2008 therefore this entry was effectively reversed this year from this account and credited to the Fixed Assets account so as to correctly account for the reversal. Other items that impacted this account included a maintenance contract on our 100 plus air conditioning units within the park as well as other costs in the form of elevator and telephone system repairs. It is also notable that our contract for the maintenance of the outfield would have started in September 2010, comparably 2 months less in 2010 than in 2011 in terms of fixed costs here.

Marketing Committee 

The drop from $343k to $184k was largely associated with the loss we had experienced last year from the Clash of Steel which was not hosted in 2011.

Medical & General Expenses 

We saw an increase here through costs of parking for the WI v SA games, payment for a windscreen that was damaged from a fallen branch in the car park and we also saw an increase in the insurance premiums this year having been advised by our brokers to cover all playing-members representing the club, where in the past we had only covered those playing football and cricket.

Prizes, Equipment & Gear 

The Annual Cricket Dinner in the latter part of 2010 saw a series of bonuses going out to the players for their victories last year which accounted for some $37k. The Football section saw an increase in the cost of the 8-a-side kit as well as in procurement of new equipment for 2011 amounting to some $60k some of which was applicable to the introduction of the junior teams, the kits for which were effectively funded by the tournament. The Cricket Sporting expenses also went up fairly substantially through expenses to cover one of our visiting stars from Barbados in the absence of several of our more recognized team members who were on international duty abroad. We also saw extra costs associated with maintenance of the QRC ground which acted as our second home ground and for which we had to engage the services of third parties for pitch preparation etc. There was also $19k which hit this account for the 15 cricketers’ airfares for this years’ U19 cricket festival in Barbados which should really have been set up as a prepayment, however it was felt that this was not material enough to require any change to the accounts as presented.

Sports Subsidy & Incentives 

This account saw an increase of $120k largely as a result of increased security costs for the 8-a-side tournament which has continued to grow in popularity. We also saw a longer period of six weeks to include the juniors therefore the associated electricity costs of providing lights for the event would have increased as well. We also saw some increases in the incentives for the footballers, cricketers and hockey players within this account.

Bank Charges 

The increase from $101k to $138k is largely due to the increase in the value of credit card transactions mostly associated with increased subscriptions and entrance fees. 

We are on track with our debt payments to the Bank and continue to move closer to seeing the fulfillment of that responsibility as we get closer to its maturity in 2014. 

In closing I would like to thank all those who have supported the management in bringing about the change we so desperately needed last year to allow us to achieve some of the short to medium term goals that were listed in our Strategic Plan. It is critical as well to continue to recognize the efforts of those members who have stepped up to the various sub-committees and assisted us in trying to keep this institution progressive. Many of these members participate without due recognition and oftentimes face the criticism and even anger from time to time of the occasional member who may not see eye to eye with the managements’ direction – I certainly understand the difficulties on both sides and I continue to encourage those of you willing to serve to step up and be counted and those who have complaints to continue to voice them in the appropriate manner such that all of our issues can be dealt with towards the betterment of our most valued establishment 

Yours sincerely, 

Roger Galt 

Honorary Treasurer