Melbourne Stars president Eddie McGuire has cautioned against rushing into an expansion of the hugely successful Big Bash League.
McGuire, who is also the chairman of AFL club Collingwood, says there’s a risk of devaluing the competition by adding more teams too quickly.
“I think we’ve got to hasten it slowly with this,” McGuire told SEN radio.
“I can understand everyone getting excited about it but, again, we’ve seen with the expansion of the AFL, it does bring its own issues.
“We’ve got something pretty good at the moment and there’s a few wrinkles we have to get sorted out before we get even more games.”
More than 71,000 people attended Sunday night’s cross-town derby between the Stars and the Renegades at the MCG.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said last week the expansion was a “mere formality”, although he forecast adding more games before more teams.
The BBL already has very limited access to Australia’s megastars for at least the next two seasons due to scheduling clashes, and McGuire is worried the playing standard could drop.
“I think we’ve got a really good spread of players at the moment – you wouldn’t want to spread it too thin,” he said.
“We’ve got to be a bit careful about the critical tipping point of when you’ve got too many players who may not be at international or just under international level, as you don’t want to see the standard drop off.”
McGuire said Cricket Australia should consult the likes of Stars coach, former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming, for an international perspective.
“I think what we need to do is get people like Stephen Fleming – who’s the coach of the Stars … who coaches in the Indian Premier League – (who) understands the world game very well and listen to them, and not just get too excited,” McGuire said.
“The riches that are there with the TV rights … they are always going to be temptations for us, but I think we’ve just got it right at the moment.
“Let’s just take a deep breath and wait half a beat and make sure we get this right.”
Paul D
Roar Guru
That pool of talent from NZ is busy in December/January playing in the New Zealand domestic T20 competition.
m
Guest
The best expansion would be to include Auckland and Wellington. Bring in the pool of talent from NZ.
Joe B
Guest
No sage advice hear, just common sense. CA already said they would expand the comp in terms of the amount of games before looking at expanding with more teams. Shouldn't McGuire be looking at replacing Fleming, most likely with Warne... it's what he does best. ?
Working Class Rugger
Guest
No, it's not. http://www.afr.com/business/sport/big-bash-league-heading-for-4-million-total-profit-for-the-eight-teams-20151209-gljz5q The current BBL is $20m a season which is more than enough to cover the costs at present. A figure they should at least double probably go close to tripling.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
I agree with your sentiment regarding depth. You don't want to go too big too early and dilute the competition. That's why if the expand, it should be done very slowly. Another option for expansion particular from those bids independent of the state associations is setting a development league. I know there is a futures leagues in place but this would be more than just for the players benefit. Though that would be one of the primary goals. Set up a structure for the likes of Canberra, Geelong, Freemantle, Gold Coast and any other interested parties to compete in. This structure would be there chance to build their brands and organisations in order to be prepared for any future expansion of the BBL. A proving ground. Ideally CA could use the popularity of the BBL to get it a TV deal as well. Set a salary cap (about half that of the BBL) and run it in line with it.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
There wouldn't be an issue at all. In fact, teams wouldn't have to even play more games if CA doesn't want to them to. At present each team plays 8 games. Once against each team including a derby for the Melbourne and Sydney teams. They then play either a return leg in those derbies or a game against their primary rivals or something along those lines. Adding a 9th squad would mean they could just go to playing each other just once without the return legs.
BrainsTrust
Guest
BBL is losing money, expanding it without a new TV deal would lose a hell of lot more money. The only reason for expansion would be if the TV networks were prepared to pay for it.Just say they double the new TV deal to 40 million, are they going to go near to quadruple it for double the matches 70-75 million. Would they be prepared to pay 105-110 million if it involved 12 teams instead of 8. Eddie McGuire he must be worried the BBL expansion might take away some potential infrastructure from his failure of an AFL club.
Mark
Guest
"to avoid the bye" What bye? The BBL isn't structured in rounds like most other sporting comps and matches are played every day on a rolling basis rather than over a series of weekends. For the BBL, I can't see why there would be any issue with having an odd number of teams.
Paul D
Roar Guru
MacGuire is spot on. The talent is already stretched quite thin as it is with 8 teams. You saw the Thunder, how badly they struggled when they were putting up grade cricketers as depth players in their first few seasons, they simply weren't up to standard. I'd be loathe to see any sort of expansion before 2020 at the earliest, and even then it should only be in response to overwhelming demand. The BBL is a golden goose at the moment but I suspect it would be surprisingly fragile if they tried to squeeze it too hard for eggs.
Basil
Guest
The standard is already watered down enough by players that struggle to get a regular First Class game and limited number of quality International players to choose from. Lots of dropped catches but hey, its colourful and bright family entertainment. As long as sixes are being hit do the greater masses really care?
Bakkies
Guest
'The BBL wouldn’t require players to uproot and move to the same level of as it would for an NRL recruit. We’re talking about 6 or 7 weeks.' Exactly when the Brumbies started players who moved to play for them were there from October to May avoiding the winter which does affect the Raiders recruitment. Some eventually moved there permanently as it helped with raising their families.
John Hamilton
Roar Pro
The Canberra Times mentioned Fremantle as an expansion possibility in an article today
John Hamilton
Roar Pro
I like this line of thinking. The problem is timing though. As soon as you expand outside school holidays, crowds will drop significantly
John Hamilton
Roar Pro
As others pointed out, Gold Coast has a huge summer population with people looking for family friendly entertainment. Additionally, the A-League, AFL and NRL are competitions that go over a 6 month period. The Big Bash would be just 4 games per year (plus finals when they make it) so crowds won't be an issue especially as they are all in school holidays as well. I notice that the Canberra Times mentioned Fremantle and Geelong as possible expansion possibilities in an article today.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
The BBL wouldn't require players to uproot and move to the same level of as it would for an NRL recruit. We're talking about 6 or 7 weeks.
Bee bee
Guest
Unlike Canberra which has a mass exodus over school holidays to places like the GC.
Bee bee
Guest
Gold Coast have Metricon Stadium to use and being a school holiday event is a huge advantage for GC. The population over school holidays is stacked with people looking for family friendly entertainment. They would easily bring in fans.
Lancey5times
Roar Rookie
Get a 2nd Perth team in there. Would be a cracking derby
Baz
Guest
eddie is spot on there is limited number of good players and at the moment most games are pretty good except thunder barring last yr.
Joel Bol
Guest
Gold Coast is the city where expansion teams go to die. No competetion has seen a successful expansion on the Gold Coast and I see no reason why BBL would buck the trend. Both the Suns and Titans have been on life support at various points and are still struggling to keep their heads above water while NBL and A League franchises are no more despite significant $'s being poured in. Canberra - yes, but to avoid the bye you need another and not sure where a side can be based that ticks all the boxes to maintain a competition standard. Also - Canberra has a notorious record for struggling to attract talent in the NRL and this could be the case in the BBL.