The Big Bash League has had many successes.
Debuting on our treasured cricket grounds as a revamped model in 2011 with new catchy team names and fluorescent pyjamas, over half a million spectators made the effort to go see the new competition in the flesh.
Those punters certainly got some action. Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden, Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge, Herschelle Gibbs and even a young Steve Smith. What a time to be alive.
As I sit here reflecting, it’s obvious that really was a long time ago. I was spending whole days at university eating cornflakes and desperately trying to be an adult.
Although I still love cornflakes, times have changed and the BBL needs to start changing something. Quickly.
The current Australian sporting landscape is dynamic and evolving and the Big Bash has remained statuesque in the face of incoming threats because the numbers said it could afford too. It can’t anymore.
To be a legitimate, sustainable elite sporting competition the BBL has to start acting like one. It has to be more dynamic. The BBL is no longer able to achieve consistent growth purely on the back of the public’s insatiable taste for cricket and the novelty of Twenty20. It’s time for Cricket Australia (CA) and the BBL administrators to take this seriously.
(Jason McCawley – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Attendance and TV ratings
The most basic statistics one can turn to when rating popularity is how many people go and how many people watch it. It’s a raw figure that rarely lies.
I will be looking only at average attendances – including finals – which leaves a little room for error as less product should increase attendance averages in those years and thus skew the stats slightly, but the trends swamp such minor anomalies.
- 2011-12: 18,021
- 2012-13: 14,883
- 2013-14: 18,778
- 2014-15: 23,590
- 2015-16: 29,443
- 2016-17: 30,114
- 2017-18: 26,531
- 2018-19: 20,552
I would give a gold star to everyone who can predict if 2019-20 is up or down on the previous year but they would be more participation awards then actual wins. It’s a strong and worrying trend.
Just 19,456 are attending Big Bash games in 2019-20 so far. It’s still a great figure in isolation, but its far front the lofty benchmark it set itself.
A very strong opening year followed by a sophomore slump is not surprising. The four years of rising attendance is not surprising. The veracity of success in 2015-17 is surprising.
In its sixth season the BBL put itself in conversation with the world’s major sporting competitions. That is not embellishment; it really did. In terms of average attendance the Big Bash League attracted the seventh-highest average crowd for a professional domestic sport league – ahead of Spain’s La Liga in eighth and behind the AFL in fourth, the EPL in third and of course the NFL in top spot. The BBL was hanging with the big boys. Admittedly the volume of games and total attendance is incomparable, but the BBL was six years old. It was an outrageous place to find itself.
A 12 per cent drop-off followed in 2017-18 before a further 22.5 per cent drop-off in 2018-19. The league lost approximately 30 per cent of its average attendance in two seasons. If I lost 30 per cent of my wage, I would struggle to survive. I think most would.
A whopping 80,883 fans turned out to see the Melbourne Stars play the Melbourne Renegades in 2016. In 2017 the Melbourne derby attracted 71,162 spectators. By 2019 the derby final attracted just 40,816 people, and only 30,388 – 54 per cent capacity at Marvel Stadium – turned up for the Melbourne derby this year.
I am sure there are contextual and external factors around this that account for minor differences, but it’s hard to argue against people just not being as interested.
(Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Analysing Australian TV ratings is a little more complex. There is the movement from Network 10 to the Seven Network, the paid TV introduction, the timing of marquee matches and even the introduction of sharing platforms such as Kayo Sports. It throws curve balls everywhere. To be honest, I found it seriously hard to find clean comparative figures. The length and nature of cricket plays into this as well, with people rarely watching an entire broadcast, thus making the numbers fundamentally flawed. VOZ will launch in 2020 and hopefully end the confusion, but until then you need to read between the lines.
But there are still a few things which make your eyes pop.
In 2016 the BBL put on the crown and became Australia’s highest-rating sport competition with an average national audience of 1.1 million viewers. These numbers held pretty firm before the partnership between free-to-air and pay-TV was introduced in 2018. There was no overall cliff dive, but a 20 per cent reduction in free-to-air average means your old fans lose ease of access.
I rely on my TV to tell me most games are on. If it’s not on, I don’t go running to check Foxtel, probably because I know it will definitely be on the next night.
TV Tonight described the finale to the 2018 season as finishing “on a high” with 1.04 million viewers. The BBL was averaging over that figure per game just two years earlier. The BBL|06 final was viewed by 1.79 million people. I know expectations change with reality, but that is some fall from grace.
Channel Seven and Fox Cricket are invested in the product being popular on TV to the tune of $1.182 billion over six years, and they are publicly concerned. Throughout and following last year’s competition the broadcasters discussed with Cricket Australia their various demands. Things are worse now. There are some nervous people sitting in some big offices.
The BBL is one natural regression from being back where it started. People often speak most loudly with their feet and their remotes and the Australian public is screaming, “We don’t care like we used too”.
(AAP Image/David Mariuz)
Competitors
It’s a little hard to put the BBL in one basket and find its direct competitors. I would be very interested in exactly how the BBL inner sanctum sees itself.
Is it entertainment? Is it a competitive sport? Is it a family-friendly activity? The truth is it’s blurred between all these and subsequently so is the target market. To avoid spiralling into a deep analysis of the most popular family-fun events, I think it’s safe to look at Australian domestic sporting competitions. It’s who the BBL should view as direct competitors, and if it doesn’t, I would love to hear the boardroom discussions about how they plan to topple the mighty Melbourne Zoo.
I also won’t be looking at other Twenty20 competitions around the world, because they are all fighting the same fight. They are certainly the biggest competitors for the talent pool, but the explosion of competitions is almost certainly an unsustainable bubble that will burst and leave us with a few remaining elite competitions. The BBL just has to do enough right to be one of them. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is in another stratosphere and essentially incomparable with our humble league.
By mid to late January the Australian sporting landscape becomes saturated. Seriously soaked. The BBL runs concurrently with the A-League, NBL and Australian Open. It can be hard to know where to look. The summer of cricket is now the summer of sport.
The A-League has been a slow burner. Its average attendance figures last year are practically identical (10,441) to the BBL’s first year (10,497). One thing is clear: the league is now well established, with over 100,000 members and strong fan-bases in Melbourne and Sydney. On the contrary the TV ratings for the A-League make for sobering reading. One free-to-air match a week and sinking Foxtel ratings since 2012-13 has made A-League viewership an ongoing concern.
The BBL has the A-League covered as a competitor, but as the BBL becomes increasingly vulnerable the A-League is only ever one Alessandro Del Piero signing away from taking a bite of the market.
(Graham Denholm – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
The National Basketball League (NBL) couldn’t be more different. Years of being a parody of a basketball league have been dissolved among a seemingly sudden revival.
Basketball feels as popular as it’s ever been in this country. The NBL halcyon days of the 1980s and 1990s were something else from what I have heard, but there feels a genuine interest in the game both at home and abroad, and the figures agree.
Following a systematic rebuild the NBL set a new record for its highest attendance for a regular season in 2018-19 with over 700,000 total fans. It also had the lowest average winning margin, thre teams tied at the top and the highest points per game since 2009. The NBL had its BBL|06.
Average attendances this year are up 11 per cent to 7357, with Round 3 being the highest-ever attended seven-game round in NBL history. A duel between legitimate NBA draft prospects RJ Hampton and LaMelo Ball had 1.9 million views via Facebook of all things. Rough estimates say highlight views globally were over 5 million. The new TV rights deal (2019-21) sees an 86 per cent increase in free-to-air matches.
It’s all coming up roses for the NBL and serious trouble for the BBL. With access to the NBA and prestigious talent gracing our shores like never before, the NBL is far from done growing. It must be noted the rise of the NBL is in direct line with the decline of the BBL. While it’s impossible to draw a firm link, I say with some confidence the NBL must be eating into the same target market and contributing to the decline in numbers. It’s the first serious competitor the BBL has ever had and it’s going to be a dog fight.
The lack of constancy
I will try to keep this short and sweet because I think this is more a personal gripe than anything else.
The constant turnover of rosters is an issue for the BBL. I am certainly pro-player mobility, but the BBL needs a period of steadiness.
The Renegades side that won the title last year lines up this week with seven new faces. It’s a different team. There is a number of factors – international cricket, injuries – but nonetheless it’s an extreme turnover.
You can love your Sydney Sixers but I would not blame you for being apprehensive in purchasing player-related merchandise. They may be playing for the Sydney Thunder next year.
While you can look at the IPL draft as the coolant to my argument, I feel the Australian public would reject such a notion. Watching Glenn Maxwell play for the Perth Scorchers next year, the Brisbane Heat in 2021 before a final year with Hobart Hurricanes doesn’t sit quite right with me, and I love a good draft.
Some of this isn’t really the BBL’s fault either. The explosion of T20 competitions globally has created a small army of mercenaries. A quick look at Dan Christian’s resume explains the current state of play.
However, with short-term international signings teams aren’t even the same outfit within a single season. Many sports have mid-season trade periods, but this is a seven-week competition. Signing Dale Steyn for the first six matches may be great for addressing some internal KPIs, but it doesn’t really help you win. It’s a publicity exercise and it’s undermining the competition.
I knew this wouldn’t be short and I am rambling now, but it’s this constant flux which is also robbing us of true competing dynasties and rivalries not based on geography.
Ask yourself this: what is greatest BBL team of all time? If it’s the BBL|03-06 Scorchers, who is the best team since?
The difficulty of these questions is an issue. They are hard to discuss at the pub.
(Stefan Gosatti/Getty Images)
The fixture
Like cramming a dinner parties worth of cutlery into those awkward plastic dishwasher baskets, Cricket Australia have squeezed as much cricket in as possible and it’s completely overflowing. Rather than doing a smaller load and having clean spoons, Cricket Australia just wants it all now. It’s the cliched sacrificing of quality for quantity.
The last few years have felt like the BBL is limping its way to the finish line. I don’t often give direct recommendations, as I like to hear solutions, but there is one painfully obvious move here: a reduction in overall games.
The belief that more is better for such a unique small window competition is deeply flawed. Whenever I hear objections to this along the lines of ‘mo games, mo money’ I just point to the NFL.
The BBL even has its own history to look at. The competitions glory days back in BBL06 had 35 games (eight games per team). Fast forward to 2018-19 and suddenly we have 59 games (14 per team).
Early last year Chris Lynn had this to say.
“I think 14 games is too many,” he said. “You do get a few breaks in between, here and there, but it just drags out. I don’t want to be too soft or anything like that but that’s just the vibe I’m getting.”
I don’t think you’re soft, Chris. It’s the vibe we are all getting.
Fewer people are going and fewer people are watching. Don’t overthink this one, CA. It’s not that confusing.
This cricket schedule needs to be trimmed. The games need to feel urgent. Less is more. You get the picture.
(Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Where are the Australian Test players?
By little fault of its own, the BBL very rarely get the chance to have the competition’s host country’s brightest stars play any meaningful matches. Surely their inclusion is the golden ticket back to the glory days. Pat Cummins bowling to Steve Smith at the SCG. Sign me up.
Unfortunately any games seem like guest appearances, almost as if they are the professional sportsmen visiting a local game to boost morale. It’s ridiculous. The part that is their own fault is why these players are even getting on the squads. I know there are player management loopholes which allow for other list inclusions, but serious sporting teams do not have world-class passengers.
The belief is these players will be available late in the fixture, which is handy if you’re in contention and utterly pointless if you’re not.
The Sixers have Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon, the Heat have James Pattinson and Marnus Labuschange and the Sydney Thunder have the world’s premier fast bowler, Pat Cummins. As we progress with two-thirds of the season behind us the five above have combined for a total of two games, 11 runs and five wickets. All thanks to a couple of James Pattinson cameos. Smith hasn’t even played since BBL|03 but has been played in the Bangladesh Premier League recently.
Cummins will take a break following the three-game ODI series currently being played in India before earning $3.17 million in the IPL from March to May.
It’s like giving someone a bag of chips but quickly picking out all the ones visibly coated in the most flavour. It’s disappointing and a bit bizarre.
Final thoughts
I am attacking a league here which is a baby in global sporting terms, and I know that, but it comes from a good place.
I love cricket but I don’t really love this cricket. I don’t even support a franchise because I fail to strongly align or care for either of the Melbourne franchises – and they’ll be different next year anyway. I’m currently strongly supporting Rashid Khan. I sure hope he isn’t different.
I recently visited my 81-year-old grandad. I arrived to him watching the BBL while casually reading the paper.
“Who’s playing?” I asked as I put the kettle on.
“I don’t know, don’t really care. It’ll be over soon anyway.”
Sure, pop isn’t the target demographic, but you can’t afford people to view your product like that, not in this environment. Apathy is surely the beginning of the end, and all the numbers say there is far too much apathy around the BBL.
The BBL will survive for now. Australia loves cricket enough and there are contractual obligations all over the place.
Meanwhile, at headquarters smarter minds then mine already know everything I have written, and it’s their job to turn it around.
However, hope doesn’t change reality. The BBL has gone stale.
Without action consumers will continue to consume a product past its expiry date until they eventually feel sick and stop buying it. With action the BBL can cook up something new all over again, but it’ll likely have to be a microwave meal.
The BBL needs something quickly.
The real SC
Roar Rookie
@Waxhead - The reasons why the BBL attendances have gone down from last year. I think it has to do with some games being played during afternoons. Some people would be at work. WHen Term 1 schooling starts, many students will be in school. Attendances will no doubt, fall. Ratings will fall. Also, a 61 match season is too long. Think about fans, think about other people, think about other sports. Fans will lose interest in watching the BBL as it goes past February.
Cari
Roar Rookie
As a watcher from afar (England) I have always viewed the twenty over game as a mix and should be televised as such. In the early years the format got it close to right, I still remember the little dog with a grin. But now we get three guys in a box, two retired cricketers and a pundit eager to tell us what we have just seen. Or, reminiscing about old times while the pundit shuffles his notes and tries desperately to get into the conversation. I’ve never seen the old captain of Australia looking more bored. You know something is very wrong when they turn up the canned applause to its maximum.
Ryan Harries
Roar Rookie
You did pose some good questions Robert but I was far too distracted by “party cricket”. One of my new favourite terms.
HR
Roar Rookie
There was a big debate about private equity at the inception of the BBL, and I think CA made the right decision not to rely on outside funding. There's a good article on that topic here: http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1073633/the-big-argument-before-the-big-bash
HR
Roar Rookie
The tactical timeout is a particular bugbear for me - specifically, if the batting team is flying they shouldn't be obliged to take the timeout if they don't want to.
HR
Roar Rookie
... not a great option - it's not like we haven't seen the result of the pay TV approach before (the outcome is pretty clear in the UK), and that's something that CA should be trying to avoid, especially if they're still in a growth phase with the league.
Robert
Guest
Definitely true that having Ponting, Warne and Gayle in the early years made it more exciting. Being able to attract more star players really depends upon the length of the tournament though doesn't it though? Furthermore, I think the Big Bash needs to take the quality of the cricket a bit more seriously rather than making the whole thing a circus. In its original concept, 'party cricket' was great when it just lasted a few weeks and spanned 35ish games. But novelty becomes tiresome quickly if dragged out and CA can't have it both ways Fundamentally, I think it comes down to whether CA are happy to have audiences hover around an average of 20k over a large number of matches or try to increase the average over a shorter number of matches doesn't it? I don't think they can have both
Ryan Harries
Roar Rookie
Hi Robert, I stopped shorted of looking that deep into the schedule but certainly valid points. Regarding the test players I did mention it was more of personal frustration then an actual legitimate issue founded in facts. I would say though i feel the novelty factor and star power early on easily accounted for the lack of Australian players. We had the likes of Ponting, Muralitharan and Warne playing in a flashy new competition. Even the likes of Shaun Tait and Keiron Pollard were decent draw cards for the casual fan.
Ryan Harries
Roar Rookie
Thanks Jose, appreciate it. I feel you regarding it being boring at times. Its strange, the quality of the cricket if often fine but it all feels so inconsequential it becomes hard to stay engaged week after week. Funny you say that, after writing this I decided to try and catch up with someone and go to a BBL game tonight. They asked if we could just have dinner instead which I though was quite ironic.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Funnily enough anon, the kiwi basketball league had the Southern Huskies in from Tassie last year. The Tassie team had to pay for all the kiwi teams to go Tassie. Just imagine telling the kiwi teams in aussie comps they (NZ Warriors, NZ Breakers, Wellington Phoenix etc) had to pay for every Aussie team that travels to play in NZ! :shocked:
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Agreed, but money takes precedence over sport with pretty much every sporting body there is so it will quite possibly happen. From a "test cricket has primacy" point of view, having the BBL in October would be better. Something high profile but essentially meaningless to let people know cricket has started. Then play the Tests starting with Boxing Day, as more people have day time off in January. But BBL over the holidays is locked in for commercial reasons.
Rugbyrah
Roar Rookie
NZ would be the first step towards global. The next step would be 1 or 2 teams from South East Asia, e.g Singapore or KL. We could grow the game in our region. Cricket is already a favorite sport with the Indian populations in these areas.
Robert
Guest
The scheduling has been an absolute mess with matches being played during the day on a weekday or finishing really late at night. The large number of games makes both the competition hard to follow and each individual game matter far less. Blaming the lack of available test players is strange when you consider its popularity was built without them
jose
Roar Rookie
Good Article Ryan, definitely the exclusive coverage to Fox Cricket for few games has impacted the viewership count for sure. But CA doesnt bother a bit, they need more money. I feel this season is slightly better than last season with more star players. Still it is boring to watch for me (i watch only the games on Seven). Only very few teams are compelling to watch. I took a ticket for one of the Sixers match @ SCG and i couldn't go due to some reasons, and i was struggling to resell my ticket. No one gives a damn about Big Bash, i should have realized it
HR
Roar Rookie
[Apologies in advance for the wall-of-text response below – it was a tale that grew in the telling, and the formatting system in the comments here leaves something to be desired.] I remember seeing Smith playing for the Sixers in one of the early seasons of the BBL (before he was the Australian captain), and thinking that he did a good job captaining the side in the place of Brad Haddin. I think that CA are in a bit of a bind in terms of the BBL. The expansion of the format from a hit-and-giggle competition that takes up a few weeks over summer, into a fully-fledged home-and-away season seems like a necessary step if you want to regard it as a genuine tournament, but at the same time, CA don’t have the clout to essentially declare a moratorium on other cricket during that time (like the IPL), so they’re stuck having to play during the international summer, which reduces the number of players available and means that the best Australian cricketers (which admittedly aren’t necessarily the same as the best Australian T20 players – e.g. Maxwell) won’t be playing in the competition. The choice is between having a serious competition and maximising the attendance per game, and I would favour the serious competition choice. At this point, it’s the only domestic cricket that has the chance of making any money anyway (and it’s the logical form for a domestic competition that people will actually attend, whether purists like it or not), so I don’t see a sharp reversal happening – CA are likely better off continuing with the competition in its current format, even if it’s not ideal, and would probably be better off dropping the state one-day competition than shortening the BBL if they were going to reduce the amount of cricket being played. As to the idea of adding another 20 matches next year, the current number of matches is the logical maximum – it’s a balanced fixture because every team plays every other home and away, and you don’t have the issues of an easy draw like you get in the AFL. Shortening the league to a round-robin with seven games, either three or four at home (alternating each season – if you play a team at home one year, you play them away the next year) and then using the AFL finals series template to decide the champion (because the BBL has eight teams, every team would play finals, and the round-robin would seed the teams) is the other option, I suppose, but I’m not sure whether there are many people in favour of that either, and it would be a very significant change. This approach could probably only be justified if you had all Australian players available for the competition, so it would still be taking place in January and February and would likely still run into the start of the school term. It will be interesting to see if CA either: 1) Reduce the number of matches next year (I wouldn’t be in favour of this, for the aforementioned reasons), or; 2) Take a wait-and-see approach, leaving the fixture as a full home-and-away for a couple of years and seeing what happens to attendances. Based on your article, I would assume that you’re in favour of the first option, but without some data on attendances I would be reticent to modify things so quickly. As other have pointed out, there were regional games last tournament (which I think is a great idea, even though it means that there are home matches that I can’t attend), and there are day games during the week this year (a much worse idea – I’m not committed enough to take a half day off work to go to a match, and I don’t think that I’m the only one, given that crowds at Adelaide were down from 28K to 18K for the two day games during the week this tournament). If attendances decline 2018/19 to 2019/20 and decline further into 2020/21, then I would be worried if I was CA. In terms of televising matches though, I agree with you that the shifting of some matches behind a paywall is
HR
Roar Rookie
Until we see more than two dozen people and a flock of seagulls at the average Shield match, I don't like your chances of seeing this eventuating...
redbackfan
Roar Rookie
one of the main reasons cricket tragic come to the roar is its pretty hard to find other people interested in discussing the shield etc. but the bbl? at work people, women too! don't just talk about it, they go to the games, take their kids(often wearing team merch), and enjoy it. watch it on tv too apparently. cricket was dying (or declining at least)before 20/20. it seems to be thriving now at all levels. I worry about cricket Australia, Kevin Roberts should have been cleaned out with peever , increasing the games/length was an obvious error last year and the program is a dogs breakfast (3 odi,s in India??) but as a product, 20/20 (and likely as the bbl here) is here to stay
Liam
Guest
And I'd call your attitude consumerism at its worst; taking a sport, something people love, and transforming it into a commodity.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
The bit you described as not liking is intrinsic to sport. The fact you don't know what's going to happen is the basis of every sporting emotion. What you seem to be after is a 2 act play. I now have a definition for why many describe 20/20 as entertainment, not sport. I'm curious as to your feelings in a revised context of the Brisbane game last night. They bat first, implode, opposition takes 10 overs to win and you get 20 instead of 40 overs for your entry. Are you happy? Secondly, Duckworth & Lewis have devised a system which skews heavily to the team batting second. Brisbane knows this, but also knows there's every likelihood of rain, but must bat first. Goes stupid, implode and it doesn't rain. Do you have value for money?
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
I don’t believe a coupla internationals is the problem in a downturn in viewers. It is no different than QLD bringing in Vic Richards & Ian Botham to win a Shield in the 80’s. If you give more locals a go then their family might turn up, but it won’t increase viewers or spectators. A sharper tournament brings drama. It’s possible to kill any well supported sport when the administrators think more games means more money. It’s happened in the past with the Olympics and soccer WC. They have well established bases though and could claw back, a domestic competition in a country of 25m won’t have that luxury. In fact it will also put the International summer on life support as viewers and attendees drift away, especially if our International team is not even playing in our own summer, but CA has them honoring some backroom deal with the BCCI.