Big Bash League attendance steadily dropping since 2018 extension
Attendance for the Big Bash League has steadily dropped since the tournament was extended in 2018, and it’s not difficult to see why.
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On January 2, 2016, 80,883 cricket fans filed into the MCG to witness the Big Bash League Melbourne derby — a BBL record.
T20 superstar Chris Gayle departed early, former Australian captain Cameron White struck a swift fifty, Ashes villain Kevin Pietersen was dismissed cheaply, and the crowd rose to its feet when Luke Wright reached a century.
It was an unforgettable evening, a night where the Big Bash proved there was more to T20 cricket than fireworks, neon clothing and advertising. It was a spectacle.
However, the honeymoon period is over. The BBL is facing a viewership crisis, and the league may never witness a buzzing crowd like that ever again.
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Audiences are seemingly fed up with the extended tournament, and the numbers prove it. As revealed by statistician Ric Finlay on Twitter, attendance has dropped significantly from last season’s BBL.
There were 888,486 spectators at the first 40 matches of the 2018/19 BBL season, but in BBL09, only 753,059 have attended at the same point in the tournament.
Attendance over first 40 matches:
— Ric Finlay (@RicFinlay) January 17, 2020
888,486 #BBL08
753,059 #BBL09
In fact, T20 cricket attendance has been gradually dropping for several years. Austadiums statistics highlight how the average number of tickets sold has reduced every year since 2016, the biggest drop coming after the BBL08 extension.
AVERAGE ATTENDANCE PER BBL MATCH
BBL05 (15/16) — 29,443
BBL06 (16/17) — 30,122
BBL07 (17/18) — 26,528
BBL08 (18/19) — 20,554
BBL09 (19/20) — 18,880*
Attendance dropped off 22.5 per cent in BBL08 when the extension was implemented. Since 2018, Big Bash attendance has decreased a whopping 29 per cent.
T20 enthusiasts are quick to point out the attendance aggregate has increased over time, which is true. However, when you extend a sporting competition from 31 to 61 matches, a growth in overall spectators is inevitable.
There has also been a push for regional areas to hosts BBL fixtures, including at Moe, Coffs Harbour and Launceston. While this is a fantastic initiative from Cricket Australia, it does not account for the drastic drop of 135,427 attendees from last season, which also featured multiple regional matches.
This season also featured the lowest-attended match in Big Bash history. Alice Springs could only encourage 1057 locals to buy a ticket for the Hurricanes vs Sixers clash in 45 degree heat. More than three times that figure attended the equivalent fixture in BBL07.
The inaugural Big Bash season in 2011/12 was short and sharp; only 31 matches. It lasted four weeks, coincided with the school holidays and featured cricket superstars Shane Warne, Chris Gayle and Shahid Afridi.
In the early days of the BBL, every fixture was a must-win. The teams played each other once each, except for twin derby games.
International players were happy to sign up for the newly-developed competition — who could say no to a four-week holiday in Australia playing cricket?
However, Cricket Australia noticed some vacant space in late January and early February. They pushed Australia’s one-day domestic tournament to September, and extended the BBL to 61 matches.
Big sporting names weren’t able to allocate two months of their calendar to Australian domestic cricket with additional T20 competitions popping up around the world. As a result, the Big Bash has welcomed more grade cricketers, English pinch-hitters and Afghani tweakers.
It certainly doesn’t help that Australia’s best cricketers at currently in India, particularly when T20 stars D’Arcy Short and Peter Handscomb were only needed on the ODI tour to carry drinks.
The league’s $1.7 million salary cap certainly didn’t attract the big names either, many opting for the Bangladesh Premier League’s bigger paycheck.
So Cricket Australia reduced the competition’s duration to six weeks without changing the number of matches, introducing more double-headers and less breaks.
Hence, this season has featured an uncanny number of weekday afternoon fixtures and a brutal travel schedule for the Perth Scorchers, who are flung from the west to east coast of Australia every few days.
The Big Bash loses its colour and flair after the midway point; it glimmers less brightly on the sporting calendar as February approaches. It becomes background white noise as the kids start ironing their school uniforms.
When you look beyond the flashing lights and Freddie Mercury chants, there’s not a lot to get excited about once the BBL passes the midpoint.
Brisbane Heat’s Chris Lynn took a swipe at Cricket Australia last January, suggesting players were suffering burn out as a result of the longer tournament, which allocates each team 14 matches.
“I think 14 games is too many,” Lynn 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.”
Sixers all rounder Moises Henriques also acknowledged the dip in attendance last season.
“I have noticed the crowds aren’t as high as what they were last year. I don’t know if that’s resonating with the TV ratings as well,” he said.
“I definitely notice the SCG isn’t as full as it has been.”
Steve Allen, an analyst from Fusion Media, said Cricket Australia’s decision to extend the Big Bash League would “ruin” the competition.
“You can’t have (cricket) six and seven nights a week. It’s insanity,” Allen said.
“The sport administrators at the Big Bash League at Cricket Australia should really take a cold shower and have a long look at themselves, because they’re about to ruin One Day Internationals and the Big Bash League.”
I said this last year TW! Greed will finish the BBL! No need for more games!
— Kevin Pietersen🦠(@KP24) January 29, 2019
Although last year’s 60-day competition was longer than the Indian Premier League, CA’s Head of the Big Bash League Kim McConnie defended the extension.
“It’s difficult to say it’s too long when you compare it to the NRL and AFL and the overall summer of cricket,” McConnie said.
“We actually think it’s just an adjustment.
“We’ll look back in a couple of years and go ‘this is the turning point that really increased the value of BBL’. I think it’s too early to say it’s too long.”
One year on from those comments, it’s hard to see how the adjustment “increased the value” of the competition. Attendance continues to plummet, as does the standard of cricket.
As Kevin Pietersen pointed out on Twitter, “Greed will finish the BBL!”
Originally published as Big Bash League attendance steadily dropping since 2018 extension