Big teams, big names, small crowds: Where are the fans for the ODI series?

Having been to a few cricket grounds around the world I would have to say that the rules,security,lining up for a beer,the cost of entry and food and drinks is enough to put me off going to these venues again,sydney is the worst,security is mind numbing,bar closes over 1 hour before stumps. Maybe the masses a sick of the treatment they receive when paying to go into the big venuues in Australia. If anyone has been to a lords test they will understand what I'm talking about. Lords is a great day out with characters,Sydney cricket ground is like going to kindergarten with to many rules

But crowds are how every body measures the success of the sport, well the concept of success in our corporate oppressed society. If they do lower their prices drastically then they will argue it devalues their brand, or whatever corporate speak they want to use, But they should drop the prices to 15-20 bucks and give each series a reason to be and give some space between each series so they can allow for some build up to it.

If the TV ratings are "phenomenal" then CA must be making a packet in which case they may as well let people into watch the game for next to nothing...or nothing. Better to see a nice full stadium than an empty one and I'm sure the players would prefer to play in front of a full house rather than an empty one.

Interesting piece in The Australian yesterday - http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-deal-magazine/cricket-australia-sets-the-field-for-a-lucrative-summer-of-sport/story-e6frgabx-1227127294532 The low crowds may not hurt that much. 70% of Cricket Australia's revenue comes from TV rights, only 10% from ticket sales. The broadcasters are happy - enormous ratings and more viewer hours than ever before. But with the TV rights and sponsorships, 90% of revenue, locked in; surely there is scope to look at reducing ticket prices.

It;s t20 that's crap, not ODI's.

I know plenty of 'gen y' people who love tests and ODI's and think t20 is garbage, tests/odi's is what we grew up on. Though I guess when all else fails old men will blame gen y.

Frankly the stadium experience sucks, and the TV experience has gotten a lot better. That's it in a nutshell. I don't have anything else to say.

I am sure that viewers at home are sick and tired of seeing their favourite TV programmes being bumped off the air to watch cricketers playing cricket in their pyjamas and weekend football on the main channels. I see the majority of complaints are the prices for entrance and food, but realistically nobody has enough discretionary money to spend all day at the cricket or football matches. Perhaps Cricket Australia and the AFL Commissioners should look at the waning interest in cricket and football across the board when you take the crowd numbers at Sheffield shield matches, one day matches and twenty twenty and test matches etc., as well as regular football matches.Perhaps Cricket Australia should introduce tippity run to the mix as well. But seriously crowds are falling across all entrenched mainstream sports, empty seats at AFL and VFL football matches as well as empty benches at televised Basketball etc. The ruling bodies of all organised sports must start looking at ticket prices facilities for fans and the use by date of their products.

Gen Y and multi-cultural Australians are overwhelmingly football fans not cricket fans

Likewise, I'm a Test snob & the Gen Y are interested in T20. ODI are struggling.

@Lee. You almost took the words out of my mouth, I was in the process writing my thoughts and then your near exact thoughts popped up, weird. I like cricket, but once I loved it. These are my fond memories growing up in Melbourne in the summer of cricket. I was a teenager in crickets heydays of Australia's 70's and 80's awesome teams, with the likes of Lillee, Thommo, Max Walker, The Chappell Brothers, Rod Marsh, Allan Border, Hooksy, etc, etc. Also the opposition then were extremely strong, Windies, Pakistan, New Zealand, India, South Africa (after Apartheid) and even England (haha) I would buy my ticket along with 80,000+ others and knew we were in for a great day/night. In the 90's and early to mid 2000 there was S & M Waugh, Mark Taylor, Gilchrist, Ponting, David Boon, Hayden, Craig McDermott, MCGrath, Warne, etc, etc I would buy my ticket along with 80,000+ others and knew we were in for a great day/night. Then I would buy my tickets to the MCG Boxing Day test and again knew I was in for a great day(s). There were only two formats of cricket played: 50/50 Tri-series: A series of round-robin games played with a table (ladder), then the top 2 placed teams would play 3 finals to determine the winner of the ODI series. Test Series: The best out of 5 matches, to determine the winner of the test series. The summer belonged to cricket. If you were a huge fan of cricket, nothing else mattered. (except in my case the beach and girls when there was a day with no cricket being played). Each year, I along with many of my mates attended all MCG ODI's and the Boxing Day test match. The interstate games we would get together and watch it on Ch9, This was the best cricket I've seen, nothing has come close since. Then came the mid to late 2000's of Australia's world domination of cricket in the McGrath, Warne era. By around 2005, my mates and I lost interest in cricket as it became predictable and boring seeing Australia thrashing every team that came to our shores. For me, Australian cricket hasn't been the same since. Cricket Australia also began to realize it's got a problem in its hands, with fans interest wavering. And this is where CA has been getting it so wrong for so long. They changed the ODI Tri-series to a ODI Duo-series, like we have now (if that's the real term, I don't know) because the crowds weren't as big when say Pakistan and West Indies were playing each other. Now and for the past decade we have 5 ODI between Australia v (insert team) with no real meaning and also for the past few years we have 20/20 between Australia v the same (insert team) with no real meaning. For the past decade, my interest is only on the test series as it has stood the test of time, without CA needing to make big changes to its formula. Today cricket is being saturated by the 20/20 format and the Big Bash League. Don't get me wrong, they both serve a purpose for the young cricketers coming through the system, but 20/20 is being played by the wrong players and the wrong time of the cricket season. There are also external reasons as to why cricket crowds are falling, eg. A-League, Tv, Internet etc but CA needs to look internally, the only place it has full control of. And where are the past greats of the game? Commentating on Tv and radio. I don't hear them screaming out "What the hell is CA doing?" Why are they ruining cricket for the fans? If CA was an AFL / NRL team and performing badly for a decade or so and no one was showing up to their games, usually a past great would come in to oust the current board and turn the club around. CA's desicion making for the last decade has been a shambles to say the least. There are 9 directors in CA, with only 1 with any note in cricket terms, that being Mark Taylor (captain 1994-1999). Darren Lehmann is doing a fine job with what he's got but the national selectors need to stop the rotation of players and pick only the best 11 for each format of the game. I can't keep up and don't know half of the team, its a mix of Australia, Australia A and domestic players. The domestic players have a platform called Bupa Sheffield Shield and KFC Big Bash League. If a player from the first 11 is in a form slump, he gets dropped and a domestic player comes in to prove his worth. My solutions to the falling cricket crowds: Dismantle the current 9 Board of Directors and make Mark Taylor the Chairman, where he can choose only 2 other directors. Less confusion = more direction. Bring back the Tri-series that brings back some excitement as to which teams get to play the finals. First, play the 5 match test series picking the best 11 test players without resting them, bar injuries and form slumps. Then play the 50/50 ODI Tri-series picking the beat 11 50/50 ODI players without resting them, bar injuries and form slumps. And then, and only then play the 20/20 series, and CA can rest as many players it likes. Only invite the teams to play in Australia from the top 5 ICC ranked teams to play here. They must earn the right to play in Australia. Bringing in a team that is "rebuilding" or a naturally crap cricket nation, doesn't do well to bring in the crowds. I might be living in the past but if we can bring in the level of interest and excitement I experienced back in crickets heydays, it's worth looking into and it might just bring back the dads with teenagers that are in my shoes to bring in the next generation of 80,000+ cricket fans back to the sorry looking empty seats of the once mighty MCG.

At a time when crowds and interest is dwindling can someone please explain why I can't listen to the cricket via the internet. Im sitting at work and like to listen to the cricket by live streaming the ABC. But no, can't do that. Can listen if I have a radio but have to pay $30 to listen on the net. Consequently didn't bother and read the score in the paper next day. That's not how you generate interest in a series. You make it accessible. You generate interest by making it easy to listen to, reasonably priced to go and see it live. A moron can figure out that 10,000 seats at $50 makes you 1/2 million bucks. 50,000 tickets sold at $10 makes the same gross dollar earned and a hell of a lot more merchandise sold and interest generated. Cricket is a game of the masses and the bosses have become greedy. They already kill the pig with the TV rights, now they will kill the game because they put profits before people.

2 adults and 4 kids. I don't know if there is a family price, but I guess I'm up for about $200 for no atmosphere, expensive food and constantly being told not to go on to the ground after the game. I sit at home, costs me nothing, I listen to inane commentary that makes me laugh. I'm cooler and have a far better view with more comfortable seat, better atmosphere and saved around $300 dollars. You do the math!

Speaking from personal experience (and of probably about 8 or 9 friends and family that I've noticed), my interest in cricket has declined tremendously in the past decade. It's a shame because the sport was a big part of my younger years. I used to imitate Warne and McGrath in the backyard, watch every Tri-Series match, listened to Test series overseas on the radio, but now I am quite thoroughly apathetic about it. I'd love to get back into it and follow the fortunes of the ten leading nations in both tests and ODIs and also the Sheffield Shield and whatever the Mercantile Mutual Cup is called these days. But try as I might, I'm really struggling. I was one of those 80,000 packed into the MCG for every ODI that Australia played between 95-04 or so. It's hard to pinpoint a primary reason for my escalating disengagement. The A-League has provided a more routinely sport to follow, with engagement reliably available to me every weekend (perfect for fans of the winter football codes). Cricket if anything has become less reliable. Yes, there is far more cricket to follow, but it's not as simple as State (Sheffield Shield/Mercantile) and International (Test/ODI Tri-Series) anymore. There is so much more thrown into the mix and it's diluting. I always struggled to enjoy 20/20 as a format, but was open to it unobtrusively coexisting alongside the other formats. With the emergence if the B!G BASH and the IPL there is far too much for me to follow and the results appear far too random for me to register with much value. The International 20/20s seem very purposeless and there is a whole set of different players to recognise as National representatives who may not feature in the other formats. The decline of Australia doesn't really apply to me (although it might to others) as I never really cared) whether we won or lost anyway (sometimes I felt I was supporting the fortunes of my favourite players rather than the fortunes of the team itself). And what is this Australia vs South Africa series for anyway (as good as the cricket has been)? It seems very ill-timed in November and the World Cup is surely leading everyone 's ODI priorities. I remember being infuriated when the ICC awarded the 2011 World Cup to the subcontinent as I was adamant that it was Aus/NZ turn and was too young to attend or remember much from '92 But now 2015 has finally come around, I haven't even any intentions to attend any matches. I'd love to want to. Help fire me up.

Scheduling in Perth put TV ratings over attendance so they got what they deserved there. The big A-League game in Melbourne last night would have had a small effect. But the main problem is cost. It's a game of cricket, not an event and $50 for the cheap seats is way to much. I like to sit behind the stumps which costs more. And I like to move around throughout the game but a GA ticket will only give you access to an increasingly limited section of the ground, even though it's empty. And I don't want to drink mid strength beer!

I don't buy into the argument of "too much cricket". We are hosting the world cup for the first time since '92. So hosting a cricket world cup naturally doesn't happen every year. It is our turn to host it with NZ. There is only four tests this summer. In previous summers, we've had six tests. I reckon Australian cricket fans are creatures of habit. Traditionally we start following the summer of cricket with the first test at the GABBA in November. And from there cricket fans follow the remaining tests including boxing day and new years and then the one dayers in January. In February the Australian team flies out to another country to play tests. So typically, the Australian summer of cricket for many fans only runs from mid November to early February. And yet, the football codes have longer domestic seasons. I do think the pricing of tickets, lack of promotion of the series against South Africa and that the players are in and out of the Australia side are the real issues.

I'm not sure about that $50 per ticket figure. I understand that any decent ticket was closer to $100. It's pretty simple - for mostly meaningless matches, ticket prices matter.

So you're not going to the cricket because you're not allowed to personally select the team?

As many people will pay to watch cricket as ever; but they're spread more thinly across different formats. For the money I could have spent on a ticket for tomorrow's ODI, I could get a Sydney Thunder BBL membership. It comes down to a choice, I've gone with the T20 instead. I'm sure I'm not the only one. The interest is there. The TV ratings have been phenomenal - Cricket Australia gets most of its income from TV rights; and they'll be even more valuable in future with so many viewer hours over the season. But the fans are saving their limited attendance budgets for later in the summer.

Christo is right, there is way too much cricket and too much "rotation" of our best players. Very good article Dan. As a huge Australian cricket fan I would just like to see our best XI on the park each and every week. I don't want to pay for tickets weeks before the match to learn that mighty Mitch Johnson has been rested, or that the arrogant imposter Maxwell has been chosen ahead of the deserving and humble Steve Smith. I want to be proud of my team, and see my best team play every week. That means Mitch tearing in and a strict no dickhead policy when it comes to our great team. Maybe then the crowds will return.