Play Nice 2018 Non AFL Admin, Crowds, Ratings, Participation etc thread

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Its just as well that 7 and Fox arent paying for the crowds then
I dont think Xmas eve is a good day for the BBL People have much more to do than sit around to some very ordinary players running around.
I feel the BBL has certainly lost it gloss = not enough star power. Still the crowds are mostly way better then the A League.
 

Footyfan61

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I dont think Xmas eve is a good day for the BBL People have much more to do than sit around to some very ordinary players running around.
I feel the BBL has certainly lost it gloss = not enough star power. Still the crowds are mostly way better then the A League.
Don’t we say this at the start of every season then January it really ramps up
 

Our Game

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Boxing Day Test: Official attendance for the day is 73,516.
A bit under you would think considering the perfect day and Melbourne's now massive Indian population. Over 80,000 would have been the pass mark!
 

Rabman

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2nd racist incident at an A-league game, WSW wanderers player just tweeted this. Gather he was the one the racial comments were aimed at.

 

Our Game

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BBL crowds are way down (excluding Perth) so far. Why is this?

From the SMH
An analysis of Big Bash League attendances and television ratings shows crowds are down by almost 15 per cent compared with the same time last year, while painting a mixed picture on television viewership as a result of the joint Channel Seven-Foxtel broadcast rights deal.

The average crowd number of just under 20,000 at this point in the season is down on the average of almost 23,000 at the same point last season. The figure is 27 per cent lower than the average crowd figure for the whole of last season, though attendances tend to pick up after Christmas.

Stadia in this year’s BBL have been slightly more than half-full on average, as opposed to last year when they were just under two-thirds full at the same point.

The attendance figures represent the second consecutive year of negative growth for the league.

After steadily building to an average crowd of more than 30,000 in 2016-17, the league shed almost 5000 supporters per game last year, with early signs pointing to a year of similar decline this season.
 

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CA would want to keep an eye on this as some sports in the past have gone for overkill and the money only to find it backfires very badly.
 
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CA would want to keep an eye on this as some sports in the past have gone for overkill and the money only to find it backfires very badly.

That's a fair call - but that's something they can only blame themselves for. The BBL has always been sold as an entertainment product first and foremost. As a result they're not going to get the fan loyalty you see in other sports, and if the entertainment value disappears (something which is highly subjective) then the public interest is going to go with it.

In saying that, I don't think you're going to see the BBL drop too far, but big swings in crowd numbers aren't going to be uncommon. If they wanted to sell it as a serious sports competition then they might get a bit more consistency, but that would require a big change in attitude towards it by CA. It's probably the only sporting comp in the country that could get away with running a 2nd (or even 3rd) division.
 
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Hobart's crowds have completely fallen off a cliff. Two seasons ago I think there was 4 BBL sellouts. Now, half full. The Launceston ticket sales are well down on last year too.

If it were up to me I would make the following changes:
  • Keep the Home & Away Fixture; but..
  • Remove the Renegades. Melbourne's crowds (especially the Renegades) have been very disappointing and the two teams have diluted the tribalism seen in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart. This would trim the amount of matches and the season by 5-7 days.
  • Move the Thunder to Canberra and trial 1-2 Sixers matches at Spotless. Geographically two Sydney teams makes sense, but crowds for both Sydney teams have been poor. Once again it hasn't worked. Clearly with less than 9k turning up to the Thunder game, Canberra hasn't embraced the Thunder. Maybe they would better with their own team and I think it's the best location for a team outside Australia's capitals.
  • Excluding the trial for potentially 2 Sixers matches at Spotless, play all bar 1 match at the team's primary home ground. For instance, Brisbane has seen good crowds for a long time, yet for their first game on the Gold Coast their crowd was terrible in comparison. I'm not sure the 2nd will be any better.
I think these changes will make the BBL a sleeker outfit and hopefully fix some of the problems in Melbourne and Sydney. Potentially, this could mean both cities average 35k for their home matches, like Adelaide and potentially Perth.
 

Isaac Cumming No 1

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Hobart's crowds have completely fallen off a cliff. Two seasons ago I think there was 4 BBL sellouts. Now, half full. The Launceston ticket sales are well down on last year too.

If it were up to me I would make the following changes:
  • Keep the Home & Away Fixture; but..
  • Remove the Renegades. Melbourne's crowds (especially the Renegades) have been very disappointing and the two teams have diluted the tribalism seen in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart. This would trim the amount of matches and the season by 5-7 days.
  • Move the Thunder to Canberra and trial 1-2 Sixers matches at Spotless. Geographically two Sydney teams makes sense, but crowds for both Sydney teams have been poor. Once again it hasn't worked. Clearly with less than 9k turning up to the Thunder game, Canberra hasn't embraced the Thunder. Maybe they would better with their own team and I think it's the best location for a team outside Australia's capitals.
  • Excluding the trial for potentially 2 Sixers matches at Spotless, play all bar 1 match at the team's primary home ground. For instance, Brisbane has seen good crowds for a long time, yet for their first game on the Gold Coast their crowd was terrible in comparison. I'm not sure the 2nd will be any better.
I think these changes will make the BBL a sleeker outfit and hopefully fix some of the problems in Melbourne and Sydney. Potentially, this could mean both cities average 35k for their home matches, like Adelaide and potentially Perth.
Thunder moving is the silliest idea I've ever heard. They've been filling Spotless ever since their inception.

Their one game this year on Christmas Eve coincided with street closures and chaos around Olympic Park as there were fears a building would collapse. You may have seen it onthe news?

Manuka for their first game was the emptiest I've ever seen it, and I travel for our games.
 
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[*]Move the Thunder to Canberra and trial 1-2 Sixers matches at Spotless. Geographically two Sydney teams makes sense, but crowds for both Sydney teams have been poor. Once again it hasn't worked. Clearly with less than 9k turning up to the Thunder game, Canberra hasn't embraced the Thunder. Maybe they would better with their own team and I think it's the best location for a team outside Australia's capitals..

No.

Thunder get great crowds at the Showgrounds( a hell of a lot of sellouts)

Why move? Ridiculous idea.

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The most obvious solution is to drop the salary cap and increase the international quota to 4 or 5.

You'll get the best in the world coming, a far higher standard of overall play and whilst you'll get a bit more imbalance in the teams, I doubt too many people will give a s**t. It's an entertainment product first and foremost. Ideally you'll give it some clear air with the test series and therefore get Australia's best playing as well, but I can see why they don't do that.
 

Our Game

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That's a fair call - but that's something they can only blame themselves for. The BBL has always been sold as an entertainment product first and foremost. As a result they're not going to get the fan loyalty you see in other sports, and if the entertainment value disappears (something which is highly subjective) then the public interest is going to go with it.

In saying that, I don't think you're going to see the BBL drop too far, but big swings in crowd numbers aren't going to be uncommon. If they wanted to sell it as a serious sports competition then they might get a bit more consistency, but that would require a big change in attitude towards it by CA. It's probably the only sporting comp in the country that could get away with running a 2nd (or even 3rd) division.

I think you are on to something as well.
The BBL is sports entertainment just like the WWF Wrestling and they really know how promote themselves by having best in the business work for them.

What we have so far with the current BBL is a second or even third rate comp with very few standout characters or world class star players going around.

The public are not mugs and will vote with their feet and wallets if they think they are not getting value for their money.Its much too easy to watch on TV these days for the casual fan.
 
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Of course Thunder fans would never consent moving to Canberra.

The average crowd is 16,726 per game at Spotless. Or about 76% of the ground's cricket capacity of 22,000. Their crowds are significantly worse than every team except Hobart. They are the weakling of the competition when they really should be the engine room. For such a small capacity ground, every game really should be a sell-out. The Thunder have the most work to do with fan engagement.

Anyhow, it's just a thought bubble.
 
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Of course Thunder fans would never consent moving to Canberra.

The average crowd is 16,726 per game at Spotless. Or about 76% of the ground's cricket capacity of 22,000. Their crowds are significantly worse than every team except Hobart. They are the weakling of the competition when they really should be the engine room. For such a small capacity ground, every game really should be a sell-out. The Thunder have the most work to do with fan engagement.

Anyhow, it's just a thought bubble.

So you want them to move to a ground that's smaller than their avg?
By that rule let's move Tassie to Canberra then.


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Isaac Cumming No 1

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Of course Thunder fans would never consent moving to Canberra.

The average crowd is 16,726 per game at Spotless. Or about 76% of the ground's cricket capacity of 22,000. Their crowds are significantly worse than every team except Hobart. They are the weakling of the competition when they really should be the engine room. For such a small capacity ground, every game really should be a sell-out. The Thunder have the most work to do with fan engagement.

Anyhow, it's just a thought bubble.
Reference for those stats? I just dont believe them at face value.
 
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Of course Thunder fans would never consent moving to Canberra.

The average crowd is 16,726 per game at Spotless. Or about 76% of the ground's cricket capacity of 22,000. Their crowds are significantly worse than every team except Hobart. They are the weakling of the competition when they really should be the engine room. For such a small capacity ground, every game really should be a sell-out. The Thunder have the most work to do with fan engagement.

Anyhow, it's just a thought bubble.

They're never going to be the engine room - every other team bar one is located at a major cricket ground, and that other one is playing in the CBD in a far superior venue that's guaranteed to never get rained out. They will always be one of the smaller teams in this comp, especially in a city that's the least reknown for attending live sport.
The Thunder are exactly the sort of team that needs star power, something they haven't had since Gayle was there and he was so expensive they had no room in their cap for anyone else so they were an awful team. From memory they had Warner as well but he couldn't play due to national team commitments.

I have to admit I don't really understand the calls to move them (and the Renegades for that matter). If Canberra warrant a team give them one, but the Thunder certainly won't do any better there.
 
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Hobart's crowds have completely fallen off a cliff. Two seasons ago I think there was 4 BBL sellouts. Now, half full. The Launceston ticket sales are well down on last year too.

If it were up to me I would make the following changes:
  • Keep the Home & Away Fixture; but..
  • Remove the Renegades. Melbourne's crowds (especially the Renegades) have been very disappointing and the two teams have diluted the tribalism seen in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart. This would trim the amount of matches and the season by 5-7 days.
I think these changes will make the BBL a sleeker outfit and hopefully fix some of the problems in Melbourne and Sydney. Potentially, this could mean both cities average 35k for their home matches, like Adelaide and potentially Perth.

Crowds in Tassie are down, so let's get rid of the Renegades?

The Renegades averaged 28k last season (including a game in Geelong) and there's another good turnout tonight.

Melbourne is Australia's fastest growing (and fairly soon to be the biggest) city, in large part due to huge immigration from the cricket mad subcontinent. No chance they will be or should be removed.
 
May 4, 2009
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On the cane train crowds


That would account for a small drop off. Include the 20% decrease, which has happened everywhere and it would be about right.

I always thought the BBL succeded despite the mismanagement of Cricket Australia. The mascots of the teams are stupid. The colours are stupid. They were marketing franchises with no connection to the area.

The Thunder are the perfect example. Why are they called the Sydney Thunder, and another team called the Sydney 6ers. There was no point of difference, outside colours, logo or where they played. Why not call the Thunder, West Sydney Thunder(one of the better mascots chosen) and create a bigger point of difference and give it some loyalty to the stadium and its place in Sydney. In saying that, I think the Thunder are going as good, if not better, than the 6ers.

The Renegades are similar but are far more problematic in terms of identity. Being an anti Stars team, like what Melbourne Heart was to Victory, isn't a blueprint to success, as we have seen from both of these teams.. But I think they understand that a lot better now and are starting to shift its focus to the West of Melbourne and Geelong. They are as much of a victim of not having a stadium that far away from another "better" one.

The BBL went through a huge expansion this year and it was always going to have massive growing pains by doing so, especially later on this year. There are things to fix and work on for next year, but it is still a dominate force around this time of year
 
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