Cricket Australia lowers ticket prices

I don't trust your brains old mate.

I'm honestly not sure what you're trying to point out anymore. You're original point is that you think CA is deliberately sabotaging Test Cricket in favour of the BBL. The key word is deliberately, as in a conspiracy theory. My point was simply that these sorts of conspiracy theories simply don't exist. Everything after that is pointless. What other major sport would try and exploit Tassie, they don't play either of the rugbies and basketball is hardly in a position to exploit anyone, it barely exists. The rest of your points seem to indicate that CA has made a bucket load out of TV rights, so the price of attending should drop or least not increase. I just don't see how they're connected. Again, is it poor marketing and a poor strategy? Perhaps, but it's not a conspiracy theory, it's just simple supply and demand - except perhaps they don't appreciate demand.

Its only these two mega rich sports that are really taking advantage of Tasmania as far as I know, though in the case of cricket before the current gang of pimps at CA, Tasmania was treated very well, can you give one other example of other sports doing this. Its not like the Sydney Hobart race is saying pay us money or we finish somewhere else. I know there used to be a basketball team from Tasmania in the 80's that went bust, so I suppose they never managed to extract government money or else they would still be going. 1. The BCCI also administers the current competition , that would mean they are in a position to take a cut of the revenue. 2. TV value of international cricket increased amazingly which sent CA revenue skyrocketing. Big Bash rights increased amazingly because they started it off with Channel Nine had already got all the rights to Australian cricket, and Channel Nine were making the money from it selling it to Foxtel. So Big Bash ncreased by 20 million from 0 so far. The rights to International cricket I think went from about 30 million 10 years ago to close to 200 million now. An Increase of about 150 million. 3. Thats the mystery if they pay no money for opposiiton teams to play in test cricket which is the financial motoring equivalent of a cardboard box not a BMW. Meanwhile the spectators are expected to fork out for it. 4. If CA wanted to make a profit they had that 150 million dollar increase in TV rights to make a massive profit out of without lifting a finger.

Of course they're squeezing the Tassie Government, all sporting bodies do this. As for the rest of your post: 1. They sold the licenses for the Franchises in the IPL, that is the money received by the BCCI; 2. I'm not sure how CA is left to "wear the cost of the Big Bash". They are building a product whose TV value has already increased amazingly and I'm sure they expect it to continue in the future. I actually doubt the BBL is run at much of a loss now (though it would have had initial start up costs that haven't been recovered yet); 3. No the ticket prices aren't comparable between the BBL and Test Cricket. They're different products. Do you pay the same for a BMW and a Toyota? 4. Are ticket prices too high? Probably. Is it a deliberate ploy by CA to kill test cricket (your original point before you started on every other point), no. It's just CA trying to milk the cow for all it's worth - after all, remember, they're a company trying to make a profit.

Tally up the facts and the conclusions seem obvious. The BIg Bash teams are owned by Cricket Australia they are not independent organisations. The big Bash was started to copy India like a lot of other things in Australia its copy whatever works overseas. In India they didn;t put a cent to fund the IPL, they got people to pay for the teams, they are privately owned and then I assume Indian Cricket skims a share of the revenue.Without Indian players eligible to play for Big Bash teams their plans to sell off the teams hit skid row, Cricket Australia is left to wear the cost of the Big Bash Did the Big Bash hire West Indian cricketers knowing that doing so meant they couldn;t play in the Test Series. Are the prices for Test Cricket and the Big Bash comparable, not in the slightest, Big Bash is dirt cheap, Test Cricket was overpriced. The last test cricket match in Tasmania before the West Indies was in 2012 against Sri Lanka. If you can remembe rthen you will note the tickets were expensive and the crowds were small.There was talk the prices would be dropped in the future. Also Tasmania get the second rate teams and miss out on any real revenue gains. Articles appeared in papers saying they would take Tasmania's test cricket matches elsewhere if they had poor crowds yet.So they make the prices expensive and then extract from the Tasmanian government to keep the Test match there. This was obvious a tactic aimed at getting the Tasmanian government to pay up to keep it there. Tasmania is like the whipping boy of Australian sport, they get taken to the cleaners by the AFL, and now Cricket Australia has seemingly started taking advantage of them

Do people actually believe this stuff? You think CA is sabotaging Test Cricket to benefit BBL? You don't honestly believe they're not trying to make it all work? As for where the money goes. They're a company, they release reports setting out expenses and refunds. They're not the Chinese Government.

The reason the prices were so high last year Cricket Australia were desperate to make the Big Bash seem succesfull over Test cricket, so they used Ashes series prices, and then even sabotaged the opposition, to stuff the Test crowds. Now they are trying to make it seem they are generous when they have probably squeezed a lot of money out of the Tasmanian government without telling anyone how much they got. They have to squeeze every cent they can out of Test cricket because they have to pay for the Big Bash circus. Just wait till England come again the prices will rise again big time. The amount of money spent by Cricket Australia have tripled over the past ten years, and they have not explained where that money has been going and how much is going into the executive pockets at Cricket Australia as well.

Well now, maybe if they schedule like they didn't just throw the matches at a calendar like a drunk playing battleship they might get some decent crowds in.

I suspect that this is window-dressing by CA. If they were truly serious about getting crowds to Tests, then prices would be halved, and hard-core fans would be able to buy 5-day passes (remember those?). I attended the NZ Tests in February, and loved how much freedom the crowds had. Much of this was to do with full-strength beer, and security staff whose only interest was to ensure the public stayed on the right side of the fence. It was a stark contrast to the Gabba, where I always feel like I'm being watched: pick your nose and you're out, son!

Seems CA has been listening to the people that pay its wages. This is welcome news and should see decent crowds once again at test matches.

Dropping ticket prices? CA should start with that clusterfk of a website they administer. I would willingly go to all 5 days of a Test but for that piece of garbage that masquerades as a booking portal. There is absolutely no easy or obvious way of discovering ticket availability (and in which stands). Every time I (and mates) have tried to book tickets, it shows that all tickets have been 'sold out', only to discover acres of vacant real estate in the stands when we've tuned in on the telly. They may as well give tickets away for free given how 'user friendly' and useless their website is. I never experienced a single problem when Ticketek ran the bookings.

Long overdue. Wasn't so much a case of seeing the writing on the wall as CA needing to be choke slammed into the wall, but they got there eventually.