Wed 23 May, 2012
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England: Clubs face key vote on rescue package  x8
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| Planet Field Hockey |
May 1, 2002
The Times
> Page Views 2378
By Cathy Harris
THE future of English hockey appeared much brighter last night after Mike Corby, the president of the English Hockey Association, confirmed that he was at an advanced stage in negotiations for a substantial loan that could help rescue the sport?s governing body from its financial crisis.
With the association facing accumulated losses of £600,000, Corby said that the interest-free loan ? believed to be as much as £500,000 ? would be placed in a newly-formed limited company that would enable hockey to continue operating.
Corby can now approach the special meeting on Saturday with renewed confidence as he attempts, as chair, to persuade the clubs to accept his rescue package. ?Approval will allow hockey to continue as we know it and give us time to restructure and write new articles,? he said.
?All the staff presently employed will be transferred to the new company, ensuring continuity. However, the loan is subject to some terms and the main condition is that an amendment to the resolution is passed and supported by the clubs at the meeting.?
The amendment will ask clubs for an additional fee of £75 per team in addition to their annual affiliation fees due on October 1, though that figure would be reduced to £60 to clubs paying before June 1.
Failure of the clubs to endorse the initiative would, in Corby?s opinion, result in dire consequences. ?If we don?t survive our credibility would be shattered worldwide,? he saaid. ?This is easily the most important meeting I?ve ever attended and comfortably the most important ever faced by English hockey.?
The sport has been shocked by the revelations that a combination of mismanagement and poor budget and financial controls have allowed such huge debts to accrue.
Outraged at having to pay the price for the EHA?s incompetence, clubs have resisted the suggestion that they should dip into their own meagre resources. However, over the past few weeks, and baecause of the unstinting efforts of a dedicated group and Corby?s persistence, the clubs gradually have been persuaded to back the governing body?s attempts to continue trading.
Responding to the clubs? demands for changes and explanations, 15 staff members have been made redundant and, on Sunday, Richard Wyatt, the chief executive, resigned.
Further cost-cutting is planned and with more tough decisions ahead Corby will need all his experience as a popular and respected international sportsman and businessman to restore the association?s battered image.
Corby, 62, represented Great Britain at both the Tokyo and Munich Olympic Games, played nearly 100 times for England and Great Britain and captained England and Great Britain at squash and hockey, as well as playing a mean game of tennis.
His business career, as chairman of a number of fitness clubs, has helped make him a multi-millionaire and if anyone can steer English hockey through its most dire period, he is the man.
Corby is adamant that the 2003 Champions Trophy for both men and women will go ahead, with the prestigious event for the top six countries in the world being staged at Milton Keynes. He is also optimistic about negotiations with Derek Higgins, of the construction company Higgins plc, over a five-year sponsorship deal for the national league.
Corby admits that he has given up 24 hours a day in the last three weeks on a mission to cajole, persuade and meet anyone and everyone whom he believes will help the cause.
?It has been difficult, confusing and exciting and no one can say I haven?t given it my all,? he says. ?I have had help from innumerable sources and total support from all the presidents of the regions and this has given me the confidence to continue. I wouldn?t be wasting my time if I didn?t think the game was worth it. All I ask is for the clubs to believe in the sport.?
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Comments on this article
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corby fan
05-02-2002 5:56 am
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the silver fox has landed
go baby go! you are the leader we want to follow! hope you manage to swing it on saturday you fox!
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Observer
05-02-2002 7:30 am
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Well it would be nice to see money coming into hockey through sponsorship of the national league.
However, it seems a shame that this money is coming from an organisation that already puts a huge amount in to hockey. Why are the EHA not looking to other organisations?
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Cinical
05-02-2002 2:19 pm
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Are you ever happy
If everything was perfect what would you have to moan about?
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Player
05-03-2002 2:13 am
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Observer's comments on sponsorship
It has always been a bone of contention that there is a pot of money out there that some how could be tapped if only hockey asked the right question to the right group of people. Wrong!!! Sponsors do not give money to anything, they invest that money usually for some sort of cheap advertising return. Hence most of those sports that are televised can get sponsors. Hence our initial problem, lack of television coverage. Then look at the medium to cover. Relatively large area, small ball, high ball speed game, difficult to film, interest, fraid not. Apart from football most of the other games televised are small area, some high speed, icehockey, high incident games, some very high scoring, basketball. Result is that as a group did we chose to get into the market with our answer to the latter, indoor hockey, no that was an irrelevance to the true game. Add another incompetence to the already growing list people seem to be accumulating.
The unfortunate truth ladies and gentlemen is that we have all made these mistakes. We, the playing part of the game are responsible ultimately for all that goes on. It is us who pay for what happens not anyone else, but we are only prepare to complain after it is a mess not before so something can be achieved.
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Sensible
05-03-2002 3:29 am
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Rescue
Sponsorship, would have a massive impact on the National League.However,the monies have to filter into running the league and the clubs.There is a danger that the EHA overhead tends to mop up all spare cash!
As for the rescue.. the decsions are almost more difficult now then they were a week ago.The £500,000 loan, is a massive act of kindness.However do we need to burden ourselves with more debt, to clear the current problem?
As regards the future...any enterprise like the Champions trophy must carry an undertaking from wealthy individuals or sponsors to underwrite any losses!
Mr Corby needs a massive vote of confidence for the work in bringing in old friends to help..... however he needs to cull costs at Milton Keynes,and get it to run as a business..... and for the sake of integrety face up to the responsibity of settling with creditors.
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Brian Haydon
05-03-2002 4:19 pm
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Hockey and TV
"Player" suggests that hockey is unsuitable for TV because of the speed, size of ball and size of ground. I have to disagree. The Sydney Olympics, the Sultan Azlan Shah trophy and even the Junior World Cup in 1997 were fabulous on TV. However, the experiments of telecasting EHL matches at Birmingham University a few years ago, and the international at Milton Keynes a couple of years ago, were dismal. What was the difference?
The main factor was the atmosphere created by the crowds (or lack thereof). A second factor was the quality of the commentary. A third factor is the style of play.
A game with less than 100 spectators leaning on the fence (typical EHL match) just looks incongruous on TV. Sydney's 15,000 spectators per game made it a spectacle. A knowledgeable, professional commentator with lots of enthusiasm can add colour, while an umpire critic can make it very ho-hum. Finally, a flowing attacking game makes for good TV. A patient, defensive game full of umpire stoppages can be extremely boring. It's not the ball size or the speed at all.
Here's my suggestion - invite India and Pakistan to England frequently for a 3-way tournament. Sell the TV rights for India v Pakistan to the rest of the world. Provide coverage of England v both free to BBC for the first couple of years, then try to sell it. I can't think of an equivalent crowd-drawer for the women, but someone may.
However, I do agree with "Player" that indoor hockey is a neglected opportunity, but I can't think of a venue where decent camera positions can be achieved.
Finally, while hockey started as an off-season activity for cricket players, surely top-level hockey should be a summer sport, and indoor hockey its winter complement. Meanwhile, you have to be a masochist or a parent to be a hockey spectator in this country. Spectator facilities are abysmal.
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Player
05-03-2002 8:15 pm
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Brian Haydon, hockey and tv
I like your contraversial thoughts, and I note your points of disagreement, I would only say, get a camera sometime and video a football game and then try videoing a hockey game. It is technically considerably more difficult, as I am sure you will find out.
I aprove of the idea of transmitting some carefree hockey, however, that might not be the best preparation to face the best in the world at the moment. Freeflowing games are the best to watch and record. A further suggestion would be to cut out more of the manufactured fouls and place more emphasis on freeplay and possession than engineered PC's.
Perhaps those in deliberations tomorrow at the EGM will take your last point on board and produce a plan that enables hockey to be a 9-10 month activity and hence more profitable.
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Homer
05-04-2002 12:24 pm
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Summer v Winter
I recall an approach 7/8 years ago from the body that were organising American Football in the UK.
With no league to organise in the summer, they were looking to organise a full-blown summer hockey league, rather than the low-key locally run ones that pre-dominate now. Unfortunately, the HA (as it then was) saw them as a threat to their authority and stamped it out. Pity really, as the marketing machine behind American Football in the UK seems to do better at getting commercial funding and press coverage for its tiny number of UK teams than the EHA manages.
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