Champions Trophy 2025: Pakistan Cricket Board forced to take overdraft as stadium renovation costs touch Rs 561 crore

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been forced to take an overdraft to manage its finances after the cost of renovation works at Champions Trophy 2025 stadiums shot up exponentially. As per a report in Pakistan’s Dawn, PCB has spent an extra five billion Pakistani rupees (approx USD 20.4 million) from original estimates to renovate the Gaddafi Stadium (Lahore), National Bank Stadium (Karachi) and the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium (Rawalpindi) ahead of the Champions Trophy 2025, that starts on 19 February.

The PCB had earlier estimated that it would need to spend 2.3 billion Pakistani rupees (approx. Rs 383 crore) to renovate the stadiums, however, the expenditure has now touched 8 billion rupees (approx. Rs 561 crore).

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PCN cancels capitals expenditures to renovate stadiums

The PCB Board of Governors (BoG) in a meeting in December last year approved raising 3 to 6 billion rupees in the current fiscal year budget to meet the “anticipated overall future cash flow requirements”. The PCB also decided to cancel the majority of its capital expenditures for the ongoing fiscal year to fund the renovation.

“The CFO [Chief Operating Officer] brought to the attention of the BoG members that as per the revised estimate provided by the PCB Director Infrastructure, the estimated budgetary requirement for the three stadia upgradation projects has increased by Rs5 billion i.e. Rs13 billion vs Rs18 billion,” the minutes of meeting read, reported Dawn.

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“In order to fund this additional requirement, the management has taken proactive measures by reducing overall operational expense budget for fiscal year 2024-25 by Rs3 billion. Additionally, most of the other capital expenditures for this fiscal year have been either cancelled or postponed. All future budgeted operational and capital expenditure are being closely monitored to ensure judicious spending. However, based on overall estimated results, there might be a periodic shortfall of approx. Rs 3 billion to Rs 6 billion during the current fiscal year.

“He (CFO) further added that considering the anticipated overall future cash flow requirements, there is a strong possibility that the PCB will require period external cash flow support for the foreseeable future. Consequently, the management has agreed in principle to secure external cash overdraft facilities in the amount of Rs3 billion to Rs6 billion to support any unexpected additional funding requirements. The management is in negotiations with different governmental and private banks to secure the best possible arrangements.

“The BoG unanimously endorsed the increase in the stadium upgrade budget by Rs5 billion. Moreover, the BoG endorsed the CFO’s proposal to secure external cash flow overdraft facilities up to Rs 6 billion to meet possible periodic funding shortfall, if any,” the documents further said.

Also as per the reports, the PCB is set to boost its revenue after this year’s Pakistan Super League by adding two more teams. Additionally, its 10-year contracts with existing franchises expire this year, opening the door for renegotiations.