JOBS among non-rugby staff at Worcester Warriors are under threat as the club counts the cost of relegation from the Guinness Premiership.

General manager Charlie Little revealed staff had been warned that they may face redundancy as club officials face up to the prospect of an income shortfall of about £1.5 million next season.

Although the club will receive a parachute payment from Premier Rugby next season – a one-off sum to help teams deal with relegation – revenue from season tickets, attendances and sponsorship as a Championship club will be significantly lower than it is used to. Mr Little said: “We have informed staff that there may be redundancies and I underline the word ‘may’.

“There is a process of looking at the costs – we’re not saying one thing or the other at the moment – but we are preparing and communicating with the staff to let them know where we are. I think it would be wrong of us to suddenly announce something like that – you have to keep your staff informed.

“They know that the team haven’t performed this season and there are positions that are not necessarily needed in the Championship. At this moment, I couldn’t put a number on it, but it won’t be double figures.”

Mr Little also revealed that the club’s multi-millionaire chairman Cecil Duckworth had pledged to cover a large proportion of the shortfall as Warriors bid to bounce back from relegation at the first attempt.

“We’ve had plan A and plan B since the turn of 2010 as, unfortunately, we’ve been at the bottom of the league for some time,” said Mr Little.

“I’m expecting the club to be down in income terms about £1.5 million in the next rugby year. The parachute payment is central funds and that will be the same whether we were in the Premiership or the Championship.

“Our non-rugby business through Sixways Events is targeted to be about £1.8 million – again, that’s regardless of whether we’re in the Premiership or not.”

Mr Little said the club expected to lose some sponsorship funding as it prepared for life in the lower division.

He said: “The only area of uncertainty is gate income, season-tickets and match-by-match revenue, so we’re expecting a percentage decrease in income and we’ll try and balance the books at the end of the year – it’s tough.

“We’ll have to address the costs as income will be down.

“Fundamentally, the cost of the likes of beer, food and casual labour will automatically come down as there won’t be as many people in the ground, which will save a couple of hundred thousand pounds.

“Anything that is left over will be supported by the chairman. He has publicly come out and said he is standing by the club to make sure we bounce back.”