Sheffield Shield: Cracking cricket but crap crowds

That is extraordinary isn't it! I thought the scorecard was reporting "English style".

Looking forward to the summary of Day 2 with Victoria 3/0 in the second dig!

Same here. I remember going to NSW v Vic at the SCG and watching Deano and Warnie battle the Waugh brothers. Then again, like the McDonald's Cup in the 80s and Merchantile Mutual Cup in the 90s, BBL will raise the profile of domestic cricketers and fans won't mind too much if the internationals aren't playing.

You need test players available too and this will never happen now. I remember seeing lillee, marsh, Kim Hughes, Greg chappell, greame wood play in one shield game when I was young.

In the early 90s, I went to a cousin's wedding in Adelaide and to my surprise, the Shield was being televised live on FTA TV from the Adelaide Oval. I don't remember whether it was Nine or ABC. The next day I went to the AO and it was free entry, free soft drink and the players all made themselves available for autographs. If there's going to be day/night Shield I feel there has to be a TV component whether it's pay or FTA. Live streaming is almost as alienating to the public as playing during business hours on weekdays. Not everyone has access to affordable broadband internet, especially in regional areas.

I vaguely remember them trying the day night format with an orange ball a while back (wa v tas). In Perth, ch9 use to televise the last session on weekends for Waca games. Was quite successful and good to watch.

Parry field a few times got over 10,000 for Perth heat games in the 90s. If you can't even get ex players, players family and friends to most shield games, how are you suppose to attract others with the product? I am not kidding when I say I have played in front of bigger crowds at amatuer soccer games.

The marketing of the BBL has been more than justified with it now generating significant revenue. The question now is if CA will look to Ryobi Cup and the Shield and whether marketing them is justified or not. The test and first-class formats alienate 9-5 workers especially if they are scheduled on weekdays. My ideas to revive the Shield would be:- - 4 sessions played over 3 days preferably Friday, Saturday and Sunday. - Where possible games be played into the twilight with a mix of daylight savings natural light and artifical light. - At least one 'match of the round' televised on pay-TV or FTA secondary channels. The rest live stream. - BBL style-marketing and merchandise (ie traditional VCA, WACA, NSWCA & QCA logos on New Era caps).

"They got that many to a three hour baseball final at Gosnells in Perth last weekend." They got 2,100 and 2,750 on the two days of the series, actually. Which demonstrates the depth of problem the Shield is having.

A few things could really improve shield cricket: 1. Better online streaming. CA could easily get better quality cameras and cameraman, rather than the handicam on a tripod they use now. All they have to do is say to local TAFES and unis is that they want camera crews for work experience. This brings in people who admittedly are learning how to film things, but would be miles better than what we've got now. It would also be cheap, and give the kids valuable experience. 2. Day/Night matches during the week. Seriously, it needs to happen. Now. if a match starts at 4 and finishes at 10 30, more people are going to watch it, because more people are finished work. Simple. Test cricket is the same. It amazes me that people complain about crowds when most of the population is working! 3. Using the BBL as a platform for shield cricket. It has the same players, and the commentators could easily hype it up.

A very large amount of equipment is needed in order to properly cover a cricket ground. But just replacing the cameras would go a long way (though quality cameras are still very expensive). The streaming set up they have is actually pretty good, it's just the feed itself that lets them down. I streamed a large portion of the NSW v VIC game while I was at work and it was very enjoyable, but investing in a higher quality camera would go a long way.

Marketing and web streaming are the ways to go here. I too wonder why the matches run to a Wed-Sat schedule. Surely two days need to be scheduled over the weekend! With the current format it is simply too difficult for anyone working normal hours to attend or even really gather an interest without going to great lengths of research. Letting people know the thing is on is a start. Enabling them to watch it via a web stream would allow them to engage. I would put that this could be done a low cost basis. As mentioned above, there would be plenty of budding TV/commentary folks out there that would do this basically on a cost recovery/pro bono basis to give themselves some level of national exposure.

Seriously, the Shield would get better crowds if it was promoted better. Played over weekends and had better tv coverage. There is no reason in the world they cannot get high definition cameras and a web broadcast of every game and stream it live over the Cricket Australia site. At the moment, they have just hooked up some dodgy old cameras and give you a bit of tripe. There are that many out of work tv crews about it would not be difficult to improve. If it is a choice between the tripe they show on tv during the day or cricket, I am sure loads would prefer watching any sort of cricket. The BBL proved that.

I probably will go next Redbacks home match.. leave work at 4, get to the ground 4:15ish. It's tough to get along on a weekday when you work a 9-5 job. Weekends usually taken up by previously organised things.

The scheduling, including playing hours, along with the marketing i.e. letting people know when and where the matches, could certainly be improved leading to larger crowds. But would the increased crowds cover the additional costs, especially when entry is free? One aspect of scheduling that hasn't been mentioned is consistency in scheduling allowing for routines of attendance to be developed. With most footy codes you know you are going to have a home game to attend every second week, on average. The BBL you could similarly be fairly assured your local team would have a home match in the next two weeks. This season the Shield has matches start on everyday of the week, except Saturday, and a huge hole in the middle of the season when most people would have more time to attend matches. The pure length of matches, in a society with increasingly busy schedules, is something that simply cannot be overcome because it is integral to the format of cricket played but scheduling all Shield matches from Friday to Monday would maximise its availability to the majority of people and allow for routine to be established during the Shield sections of the season. CA's primary focus is on marketing the BBL and the Australian team in all formats. There are ways CA could grow the Sheffield Shield audience but I doubt its going to happen.

The Shield has a marketing problem, that is for sure. I work a 5 minute bus ride from the Gabba, and the entry is free, but still I'm not tempted along. Night sessions *could* tempt me, but ultimately the problem is the Wednesday start: unless the game is particularly well setup, there's no point planning my Saturday around a visit to the ground. I wonder if the Wednesday-Saturday pattern is an artifact of the 50-over games that were originally scheduled for Sundays (but then hastily--and, it must be said, successfully--rolled into a month-long tournament). Hopefully Shield games will start on Friday next summer.