"It's a difficult situation to be in, but we're sort of battening down the hatches and we're also doing whatever we can to grow revenue."
There's no ifs and buts with Hood intending to turn the deficit around.
"It's not a position that'll be sustainable if we continue like this so we're doing everything we can to turn this around as quickly as possible," says the new CEO who took over from Hugh Henderson early this year.
The deficit had grown significantly when compared with the previous year.
Hood attributes that to two factors:
The gates from the former HRV Cup Twenty20 matches in New Plymouth were significantly under budget because of the persistent rain last summer.
The gaming funds were down from what CD Cricket had budgeted for.
With new sponsors at the helm, the Georgie Pie Super Smash Twenty20 opening round in Hamilton last weekend failed to entice fans through the turnstiles.
"It's my job to professionally come in to ensure we can turn it around and I'm positive we are going to do that," he says.
Primarily, CD Cricket is looking at pruning "any wastage across the whole organisation
"We've really pulled things in as much as we can when it comes around to expenditure down to fine details."
Hood says it is basically trimming back on a "a lot of little things".
"We're not doing any of the luxuries," he says, such as expenditure in relation to work-related travel.
"We have to be smarter around how we spend our money."
Teams travelling together and avoiding staying any extra nights at playing venues are essential.
For Hood, the task of raising more revenue is the daunting part.
Getting the CD brand out there to stimulate the public for a larger following is on the agenda.
"We've traditionally been very Hawke's Bay-focused as far as our support so we need to spread that out among our other support bases."
Hood says the way to achieve that is engaging CD's scattered catchment area and its businesses to recognise the product.
"They have to feel that Central Districts Cricket is the team of our region and then we can have the ability to sell them on that basis.
"If they don't feel that in engaging with us then it's very hard for them to support us."
The Stags are fortunate to have entrepreneurs Peter and Rosemary Tennant, from Devon Hotel Heritage, in New Plymouth, as major sponsors of the team.
Bluewater Hotel, of Napier, and Trailways Hotel, of Nelson, are the other key sponsors but other than that CD doesn't have financial backing.
"We're trying to work on other sponsors at the moment to grow our base."
Driving the Stags, mainly around the Super Smash T20 (formerly HRV Cup), is of utmost importance.
"There'll be more games on television than ever before - nine of the Stags' games are on TV," he says although the Heinrich Malan-coached CD Stags men's team lost their opening match to the Canterbury Kings by six wickets on Sunday night.
Hood says the logos on the Stags' shirts will become more valuable because of TV time.
The T20 weekend at McLean Park on November 29-30 - involving CD, Northern Districts Knights, Canterbury Kings and the Auckland Aces - promises 15 hours of TV time that will make it a sandwich board for advertising.
"It's fantastic to see CD get on board with the winning teams [after the Stags won their opening round of the four-day Plunket Shield match in Napier last week] and I anticipate we're going to do a lot more winning yet so I can, hopefully, convey that message to sponsors to get on board nice and early."
Hood says it's a small reward in the steps of all the hard work the Stags have put in throughout the winter.
At the AGM, Hood paid tribute to Viv Stephens, of Napier, who retired from the board after 18 years of service.
"After a great service, she is no longer going to be part of the board," he says, adding son of ex-CEO Blair Furlong and former CD rep Campbell Furlong has been re-elected.
Greg Stretch, of Marlborough, is also a new board member, chairman Blair Robinson (HB), Mark Cleaver (Manawatu), Dennis Radford (Manawatu), Russell Dempster (Taranaki), Phil Chandler (HB).
Michael Sewell, of Wanganui, is the new president of CD Cricket on rotation for a year, while the patron is Vern Chettleburgh, of Manawatu, which are honorary positions.
