A few games into the Big Bash League and Cricket Australia will be wondering where they have gone wrong.
It seems people aren’t flocking to the revamped league. While they will ponder, the answer comes from a fatal error of judgment.
Australian sport fans don’t like being taken for a ride and they respond by not attending sporting events. The last few A-League seasons are a perfect example, as the FFA stopped being interested and the crowds who felt they were being duped walked away.
Quite simply, if there is no passion in sport and everything feels neglected, Australians stay away.
Also, cricket is a game that is either loved or hated by people. Unlike AFL, rugby union, league, and football, the game cannot be followed casually. Only dedicated people will be infected by the cricket bug.
I bring this up because while watching the Twenty20 comp, reading reports on The Roar, and generally looking around, the soft BBL figures took me back to an interview in the latest edition of Inside Sport with the Modi of Australian BBL, Mike McKenna.
When questioned on how fans would react to the elimination of state rivalries, McKenna responded in way which I felt was smug: “Let’s get real. How many people are passionately committed to their state team? Sure there a plenty who follow the scores, check out the points table and are delighted when their state wins the Shield.
“However, only a few very loyal and passionate fans attend more than the occasional match. We average less than 1500 fans to state cricket clashes.”
While McKenna uses credible evidence to prove his points, using just crowd figures to measure state cricket passion is like measuring the tip of an iceberg. Ninety percent is below the surface.
Chief McKenna and his loyal deputies at Cricket Australia are like the captain of the Titanic; they misjudged the iceberg.
There is a huge level of state passion existing in Australian cricket. Whether New South Wales gloats after another Shield win, or talkback and newspapers in Adelaide are scathing of the Redbacks, state cricket plays is important and followed thoroughly.
Attendances have and will be soft due to a number of other factors that deserve another article. In my opinion, it is followed more closely than ever as Australian cricket fans look for the next big thing that can lift the baggy green team out of their current malaise.
McKenna and his BBL were not created organically like other sporting clubs. Instead of just fitting in, the BBL has made Cricket Australia, in my opinion, look terribly fake.
If McKenna thinks that passion can be transferred over to the BBL, he has rocks in his head. The BBL in its current form will never be more than casually followed by those who love the game. To them it is the baggy green first and the states second.
Those young and women that dislike cricket, being the BBL’s target demographic, will never attend a match because they don’t have that cricket bug.
What the BBL has done in New South Wales and Victoria has effectively split the 35-40,000 patrons of the BBL into two.
In the other states, fans feel that that these BBL teams aren’t theirs; rather they are a property of Cricket Australia.
Effectively, a good organic competition has been torn apart and replaced with a nothing contest in a ridiculous part of the year.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Well made point. We don't always get it right, but we do our best. The History Channel is a shocker. Thanks.
Chris W
Guest
You dont need to have the cricket bug to watch 20/20 thats part of the point and A-league was hit with averages dropping due to expansion. Yes in the BBL the 4 teams has split the former NSW blues and Victoria but its only the first season the goal of the club is to attract new supporters in the following seasons.
JD
Guest
Historically, throwing millions into heavily promoting a dumbed down version of a sport is likely to attract an initial gain. Curiosity and all that. Even the XFL (anyone remember?) did OK early dawes. And then it disappeared quicker than Ben Elton after one season. I don't think anyone is railing against T20 or the BBL as a concept. It's just the execution is an extremely risky strategy, and one that totally contradicts the Argus Report. The same money could have been spent on the old BBL model with far better results. Anyway, the circus is in town. Each to their own.
Matt F
Guest
Yeah having just looked it up on Wikipedia the film looks very good. I'm not even close to being a motor racing fan but, having looked it up, I'd probably watch it anyway. Roar bets are the best bets!
Fake ex-AFL fan
Roar Rookie
Tristan I think the reason this particular article and others like it have attracted such ridicule is that they present what is a wholly subjective opinion and dress it up with absurd claims to legitimacy and evidence. If people don't like the BBL and hope it fails that's fine, that is indeed an opinion that people have a right to express. When people make claims about vast masses of disenfranchised state cricket fans, this is not opinion, this is fantasy land stuff. Would the Roar publish an article where I claim that Australian Football is about to take over from cricket as the no. 1 sport in India, based upon the fact that there are at least 200 million passionate Collingwood fans living there who just don't happen to watch the game, talk about the game, play the game or even think about the game, but certainly exist because I once saw a guy who looked a bit Indian kicking a Sherrin in my local park? Publish much more of this nonsense about state cricket fans and you're at genuine risk of becoming like the History Channel, where serious documentaries have given way to endless parades of weirdos talking about ancient aliens and how Hitler's pet dog had ESP etc. etc.
Fake ex-AFL fan
Roar Rookie
So if I lose I have to watch a movie that everyone says is completely awesome and that I was planning to watch over Christmas anyway? I'll take that bet... I only hope it can reach the heights of what is generally considered the finest sports movie of all time - Dodgeball!
Matt F
Guest
Nice in theory ben but, as Bret said, Aus and England wouldn't reduce the Ashes to 3 tests and if you make an exception for one then you have to do it for all. I do like the idea of only playing 3 ODI's. The SL series last year was actually quite good because it only went for 3 matches (as opposed to the mammoth 7 game series against England.) We all know that the tr-series this summer will drag on and on and on and on and on and............
Matt F
Guest
Nah it's fine. I don't watch that many sport movies so I wouldn't know where to begin. I thougth about googling for the worst sport film of all time but I'm not that cruel! Happy to keep the terms as it is, unless of course Fakey ends up accepting your challenge and has one in mind
Johnno
Guest
Right on faker we both have been saying the last week, state cricket fan let alone stat cricket fans do not even exist. There are like you said and i agree 100% more Siberian Tigers in the world than state cricket fans faker, and im sure more tasmanian devils in the world too than state cricket fans, and they are at risk specie. STATE CRICKET FANS FAKER AND OTEHRS DO NO EXIST. -Has any one been to the shielf matches on a regular basis in the least 10 years. ZERO
Brett McKay
Expert
Ben, I know five Test series are essentially a thing of the past now, but would you be happy to see the Ashes decided over only three Tests?? I certainly wouldn't, and I'm quite sure the CA and ECB accountants wouldn't either..
Mark Young
Roar Guru
That's the spirit Matt! By the way I am happy to watch a sports movie of your choice.
Matt F
Roar Guru
Oh Merry Christmas Mark (and all Roar regulars!) I do enjoy a healthy debate!
Matt F
Roar Guru
Even though I'll have to sit through a movie that I have no interest in seeing and all you have to do is take 5 seconds to post Ï was wrong"on The Roar, I'll still take it. I'm confident that the remaining 6 Sixers/Thunder games, along with the 12k who went to the Sixers first game will get the 120% figure. NSW total last year was approx 50k so that means I'm shooting for 60k.
Matt F
Roar Guru
Of course we're jumping the gun. I've said that exact same thing in every article about it this week. Though in this case all I did was use the available data to answer your previous question. I know it was probably stupid of me to bring in actual data to a debate where everybody seems happy to make up whatever they like, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I have no idea how the tournament will go in the long run, nobody does. All I pointed out is that, so far, the crowds and TV ratings are pretty good. That's all. Though you've just backed up my own point about why they ditched the old state teams. More games (especially in Sydney and Melbourne) means more people. Besides, unless the extra numbers are from people who went to both games (highly unlikely) then the new tournament has brought in more fans who didn't turn up last year. What's wrong with that?
Big Bash League...here to stay.
Guest
I also played in Alice Springs where the cricket season corresponds with the southern season, but it's a town of 27,000. Trager Park is not a bad facility having hosted the West Indies when I lived there. Perhaps a Territory side could play there, but it would be a stretch.
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Ah, the red side... Brett, I envy you sometimes!...
Brett McKay
Expert
I'll echo Ben's thoughts as someone lucky enough to move from the blue to the red column on this site. I've not come across another sports site that mixes news and opinion from all types quite as well as The Roar does (and there's a few out there trying..)
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Tis the season to 'Roll the Dice' Brett!! Besides, it won't be the first time I have to admit I don't know what I am talking about!
Matt F
Roar Guru
Maybe, maybe not. I agree that it's stupid to judge the competition after a week. I've said that a few times in these articles so far this week. It's a long-term strategy by CA to get more games, more teams and expand to new areas so it will probably best be judged in 3-5 years. I just find all the articles this week declaring it a failiure (many with dodgy "facts") to be very premature and based around wishful thinking more than reality. It may wel fail, but it's way too early to judge
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Perhaps we could standardise all future ICC tours? Three Tests, three ODIS, three T20s? At least every nation would be playing an exactly equal number of matches in reference to any championship table, etc? (and no, this is not my personal preference, just an administrative idea)