Lancashire secure £12m hotel deal

Lancashire have secured the £12m financing needed to replace the Old Trafford Lodge with a 150-room four-star hotel.

The agreement emphasises the increasingly ambitious deals that are now at the heart of the one-time demur county game.

Such expansion plans have ramped up the pressure on the ECB to secure a more popular future for the professional game at both national and domestic level.

Agreement from Trafford Council to loan Lancashire £4m followed a £5m outlay from Greater Manchester's combined authority and a further £3m from a mini-bond successfully offered to supporters and business last year.

Around 5% of receipts from international matches will be paid to the council under a 10-year deal in which it expects to make more than £1m from the county in interest payments. The loan from the combined authority will be paid back over five years.

Old Trafford Lodge offered 68 rooms, but the new hotel will more than double hotel space and, if successful, will place the county on a firmer financial footing. In both car parking and hotel facilities, Lancashire cricket has benefited enormously from the proximity of the other Old Trafford - home of Manchester United.

Old Trafford was shaken from its moribund state in 2013 when Trafford Council sold unused land at a high school close to Old Trafford to the supermarket giant Tesco. Tesco paidf £20m over the going rate on the understanding the money was allocated to Lancashire cricket.