Currently the Big Bash has eight teams. Each team plays each other team once, plus an additional match against their rival team.
This results in 32 round robin matches plus three finals.
Expanding the league to ten teams and would result in 50 regular season matches and in a six team finals series resulting in a 55-game season.
With more matches played the competition window would need to be extended. Double headers every Saturday and Sunday, matches on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as well starting the competition a week earlier and pushing the One Day Internationals into February would help accommodate the extra games.
Pushing the ODIs into February would also allow players from the Australian team to play during the second half of the competition.
There are several options for locations of expansion teams the two best options would be Canberra and the Gold Coast.
Canberra is a no brainer for expansion, the good crowds for the PM’s XI as well as good crowds for One Day Internationals shows that a team in Canberra is a good idea.
The Gold Coast is a popular tourist destination, in particular over the summer holidays, basing a team on the Gold Coast could help to cater for those on holiday who want to go to the cricket.
Expanding the competition will put a strain on the player pool, this could be easily fixed by increase the number of overseas players to three as well as allowing players from associate nations not not to be counted as overseas players.
Broadcaster Channel Ten would be thrilled to have an additional 20 matches to broadcast each season.
Cricket Australia has previously stated the the Big Bash won’t be expanded until the end of the current television deal which expires at the end of the 2017-18 season.
This means that the new teams could be ready to start playing at the beginning of the 2018-b19 season.
With the new television deal set the be a lot higher then the current one, more games each season would help to make the next television deal more lucrative than it already is.
Bear
Guest
Disagree, Geelong is a major growth corridor, the second largest city in Victoria and would not compete for sponsor dollars or crowds over the existing Melbourne BBL teams. Geelong already has the fans and stadium ready to go and local boy Aaron Finch could be the first captain of the Geelong Clippers! Go Clippers!
josh
Roar Rookie
Canberra is a must. For another Queesland team, I'd expand beyond SEQ. There have been plenty of Australian players come from the north of the state. I'd loko to the popularity of the Cowboys. If there is a good enough facility add a NQ team.
mrrexdog
Roar Guru
The problem with Northern Australia (Cairns, Townsville, Darwin, etc) is that it tends to rain over summer. Newcastle could work, but the number 1 sports ground would need to be upgraded.
The Bush
Roar Guru
If you're looking at large regional centres, then you obviously have Newcastle, which has not been mentioned (presumably due to a lack of a ground?). You also have Townsville and Cairns who are both above 100,000 people and their general population reach would be closer to 200,000 each. There's always Darwin... Could be pretty sweet to be the first undeniably national competition (if you went to Canberra at the same time).
Christov
Guest
I agree, with the Heat's major sponsor talking about how they are going to pay their creditors you may see a change in team colour and name next season. I think the main point of the argument is to not expand too quickly - will bite them
13th Man
Guest
We don't need a third team from Victoria, that's just overkill! 2 teams from NZ, North island and South Island would be best I think
Alex L
Roar Rookie
I know about Metricon, I just think it's a rubbish stadium and very inaccessible to boot.
Brian
Guest
Yeah Auckland surely makes more sense then the Gold Coast
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
Alex - Google Metricon Stadium. This could very easily be used as a Cricket Stadium as most AFL/Cricket grounds across the country.
Bucks
Guest
How about just Canberra?? 9 teams won't harm anybody. Still 8 games a season, just don't play a team twice. Every team has 1 bye round??
Paul Nicholls
Roar Guru
Agree with jamesb - Canberra and Geelong. Canberra is obvious and so is Geelong. In fact I could see Geelongites being as mad as the people from Adelaide - with a drop in pitch at Kardinia Park (or whatever they call it nowadays) I reckon it would be full house every match
jamesb
Guest
I'd go with Canberra and Geelong. Don't go to the Gold Coast. That's a graveyard. NRL and AFL teams are still there because they have the money.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Where does a Gold Coast team even play... there's no good cricket stadia there. I could see the merit in adding 1 (Canberra) team and only adding a few games by removing the rival games and having each team play once (that's 4 more games, pardon my pre-edit mathematical stuff up).
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Agreed on the Gold Coast. I was thinking something similar (though without the amount of local knowledge given by yourself). The second expansion team is the big question. Canberra is an obvious choice for a 9th team, but it's really hard to work out where the 10th team would come from. Could a more regional centre work? When you consider Hobart is a highly successful franchise and the Hobart population is only around 200,000, a regional centre that supports a population close to that in the greater area around it could potentially work. Possibilities could include Geelong, Albury-Wodonga, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga. Many of these places show populations in the town themselves as not being that high, but if you count the population in the extended area around them that are close enough for people to consider coming to games (say within an hour or two's drive), then you might find you have a good catchment size. Many of these country regions are sport mad, don't get a lot of top level sport around, and people in many of these country areas are used to driving long distances and many wouldn't think twice of driving 2 hours each way to go to every home game. Of course, they'd still have to have a venue that could seat at least 10,000 people to make it viable. Somewhere like Dubbo isn't that massive itself, but is quite central for a lot of surrounding towns in central NSW,, and if you combine the population of all those towns and areas you may well find you could easily get Hobart Hurricanes level crowds along to games.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I agree about the Gold Coast, no sporting teams really seem to thrive there. Some die, altogether, others survive, but only just. I agree that looking at the overall number of games it looks like a massive increase, up from 35 total games to 55 total games. But when you consider that currently each team only has 4 home games, and the proposed change would only increase that to 5 home games each team, it' doesn't necessarily look like such a massive increase.
mrrexdog
Roar Guru
Fair point regarding the Gold Goast. It was a toss up between the Gold Coast and Newcastle the main reason I went with the Gold Coast was because the number 1 sports ground in Newcastle isn't up to scratch. If the number 1 sports ground gets upgraded it could host a Newcastle team in a couple of years
Paul D
Roar Guru
The Heat struggles to draw a full house as it is. The argument that a Gold Coast team could tap into the tourist argument is a joke, there's no easy way to get to Metricon stadium from the strip, the tram line doesn't run out there yet, and no-one is going to wait for the notoriously unreliable Gold Coast bus service to get them to and from the ground. If you introduce a second team to QLD all you'll do is cannibalise the existing audience of the Heat, much as the AFL did with the Lions/Suns. Except Cricket Australia doesn't have as deep pockets as the AFL behemoth. All in all I'd be extremely negative on having a second team in QLD. Particularly on the Gold Coast.
Christov
Guest
Can we please not get a kiwi team, they have their own T20 competition. I think that Canberra would be a good choice for another team, however, I am not sure that the Gold Coast is a good choice for the other team. I think that with the troubles that Link Energy is having (and are forecasted to have) the future of the Brisbane Heat looks a little weak. Perhaps wait until they get a new sponsor and then expand into Queensland.
SuperEgz
Guest
Personally the only changes to the BBL structure I would have is to copy the IPL finals system so the top 2 teams have a second chance to make the grandfinal and to somehow make it so that each team has a big iconic fixture. The Melbourne and Sydney teams have their derbies and Adelaide has the New Years Eve games. Something similar needs to be fixtured for Brisbane, Perth and Hobart but I am not sure how.
Craig Swanson
Guest
THe BBL is enough of a distraction to the domestic season as it is. But this thing is so damn popular that your idea would probably be implemented. Why extend it though? Just schedule more games to fit into the present window. The ACT definitely needs a side. Who else. The Northern Territory.. or another Qld or WA team? A Kiwi side or one from the Pacific islands?