Warwickshire sports clubs exploring ways to cut energy bills

Nick Johnston said Coventry Rugby Club was exploring options to cut costs

A rugby club is considering bringing kick-off forward by an hour to avoid using floodlights and save energy.

Sports clubs across Warwickshire say they are struggling to meet rising bills.

Coventry Rugby Club said kick-off could potentially be moved to 14:00, meaning games would be played in daylight.

Jed McCrory, the chairman of non-league Stratford Town, said the football club was also considering cutting evening events to save on floodlighting.

The government's recent energy price cap for businesses has cut bills by about half their expected level.

But chief executive Nick Johnston said despite the support, the rugby club's electricity bill had increased by £125,000 a year.

"We have to mitigate risk every single day at the moment," he told the BBC.

Coventry Rugby Club has seen its electricity bill rise to £125,000 a year

Mr Johnston said recent years had been "challenging" for Rugby Union and he was looking at cost-saving measures such as better lighting and insulation.

• Listen: Coventry Rugby boss says energy costs have risen £125,000 this year

Mr McCrory said the club had already made cuts to its programme of events.

"We've had stop all the evening activities for the kids. We do dementia classes here, we're doing veterans for lunches - something's got to break."

Coventry Blaze worry their ice rink will become financially unviable for their landlords

Meanwhile, chairman of Coventry Blaze ice hockey team Andy Buxton said he was looking for ways to keep down the costs of freezing the ice at the Skydome rink and hoped to install a more efficient plant unit.

"As costs go up, the key for us as a tenant is the building can still operate as an ice facility. If the building becomes unviable as an ice facility then we'll have nowhere to play."

All of the clubs said they were doing their utmost not to pass on costs to fans and were grateful to have good turnout at matches.

"We took a decision to freeze prices," said Mr Johnston. "But there's a point - how long will we be able to do that?"