cricket 2025 (3 Viewers)

tisza

Well-Known Member
Been disappointing to see the number of empty seats for the ODIs. Always a shame that the level of support for West Indies has diminished so much. Remember the games I was a kid and the large numbers of boisterous West Indies fans that would be at games. Remember being at a game at Edgbaston when it seemed like they easily outnumbered the England fans
 
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Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
Been disappointing to see the number of empty seats for the ODIs. Always a shame that the level of support for West Indies has diminished so much. Remembr the games I was a kid and the large numbers of boisterous West Indies fans that would be at games. Remember being at a game at Edgbaston when it seemed like they easily outnumbered the England fans
Probably a generational thing.

Back then a lot would have been Windrush or other immigrants that had grown up immersed in cricket in the West Indies before coming here.

Now immigration is more diversified there won't be the same concentration of West Indians and second/third generation West Indians brought up here haven't grown up with the fanaticism of cricket in quite the same way.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Been disappointing to see the number of empty seats for the ODIs. Always a shame that the level of support for West Indies has diminished so much. Remember the games I was a kid and the large numbers of boisterous West Indies fans that would be at games. Remember being at a game at Edgbaston when it seemed like they easily outnumbered the England fans
There's a real problem coming down the line and there seems to be a head in the sand attitude to it. We're rapidly reaching a point where nobody gives a shit about games unless they are between the big 3, England, Australia and India.

Worldwide now you see row after row of empty seats at games that would have previously been guaranteed sell outs. But as with everything in cricket those in charge are more concerned with empire building than ensuring the health of the game worldwide.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
Probably a generational thing.

Back then a lot would have been Windrush or other immigrants that had grown up immersed in cricket in the West Indies before coming here.

Now immigration is more diversified there won't be the same concentration of West Indians and second/third generation West Indians brought up here haven't grown up with the fanaticism of cricket in quite the same way.

Its more they are not competitive anymore.

West Indies were THE team to watch when i was a teenager. Exciting fast bowling and amazing batting. I went to test matches just to see them. I travelled to Taunton a couple of times to see Richards and Garner in action.

Ironically Australia had declined and were poor.

Now the West Indies are just rank bad.
 

Sky Blue Wozza

Well-Known Member
I wouldn’t imagine the pricing helps much.
This, definitely.

I went to watch the 2nd day of the Zimbabwe match with my Dad at Trent Bridge and paid £50. Fair amount, I reckon. But, we had a great day weather-wise and saw some good cricket.

The ODIs are far more expensive and, dare I say it, less competitive.
 

alexccfc99

Well-Known Member
This, definitely.

I went to watch the 2nd day of the Zimbabwe match with my Dad at Trent Bridge and paid £50. Fair amount, I reckon. But, we had a great day weather-wise and saw some good cricket.

The ODIs are far more expensive and, dare I say it, less competitive.
I’ve paid 80aud (roughly about £40) to be 9 rows from the front in Perth in November… Makes our pricing over here look disgusting
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
I’ve paid 80aud (roughly about £40) to be 9 rows from the front in Perth in November… Makes our pricing over here look disgusting
Not jealous in the slightest!

The whole experience of going to Edgbaston is increasingly shit IMO. When I started going you could park right next to the ground for next to nothing and getting a ticket for even the most popular Ashes games was a case of wandering round to the ticket office in the lunch interval.

Then they moved the parking to Calthorpe Park which was a less than 5 minute walk and pretty easy to get away from with traffic management in place.

Now its a mad scramble for international tickets, parking miles away that costs a small fortune, parking has to be booked in advance with no refunds if it pisses down all day, absolute gridlock around the ground.

Not to mention the new stand seems to have less members facilities than the old one did. Get the feeling they're laying plans to turf members out completely and send them to the other side of the ground.

First time in a while I've not got tickets or plans for a single days cricket at Edgbaston this summer.
 

Bertola

Well-Known Member
Agree on the parking being a nightmare, I've been to a game in the Hundred two years running, and taken the kids. They've both loved it, but parking 20/30 mins away and walking back to the car with little legs, through a very poorly lit park is a nightmare.

Went to the test match there last year too, and the train from Cov was ridiculously full, ended up getting off a stop earlier than New Street and getting an uber to the ground, its a bloody free for all getting back to Brum on the shuttle buses afterwards though
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Agree on the parking being a nightmare, I've been to a game in the Hundred two years running, and taken the kids. They've both loved it, but parking 20/30 mins away and walking back to the car with little legs, through a very poorly lit park is a nightmare.

Went to the test match there last year too, and the train from Cov was ridiculously full, ended up getting off a stop earlier than New Street and getting an uber to the ground, its a bloody free for all getting back to Brum on the shuttle buses afterwards though
It also makes it very time consuming. For a Blast game I used to be able to finish work, drive to the ground and not miss the start. Stay till the end and get home early enough that I wasn't half asleep at work the next day.

Now I need to take an afternoon off work to get there without missing half the game and walk miles back to the car to then sit in traffic and get home late. Just had a look and for a ticket in the south stand and parking going to the next blast game would cost me £57. No wonder its half empty all the time.

The train and shuttle bus is a good idea but it takes forever. Mental that the tram doesn't run to an international venue but they're happily spending hundreds of millions to run it to Birminghams proposed new football stadium.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Great day for the Bears. Women's win puts them top and the mens side with a big win against Yorkshire even if they did make hard work of it trying to smash every ball out the ground when they only needed just over a run a ball.

Was talking earlier in the thread about ticket prices and it's been a hot topic on cricket twitter today. Seems pretty much across the board there's been big rises in T20 prices which has lead to questions about why. Counties should have autonomy to set their own pricing but it seems a bit odd that everyone has decided to hike prices at the same time while cheap / free tickets for the Hundred are easy to find.

Grounds around the country empty, never seen Edgbaston so quiet for a weekend game. Said for a while we're seeing managed decline of the Blast and seeing little this season to persuade me otherwise. How long before the powers that be start a conversation about the competition not being financially viable?

Gsx2rhKXMAEb1Qe.jpeg
pic stolen off twitter
 

tisza

Well-Known Member
Grounds around the country empty, never seen Edgbaston so quiet for a weekend game. Said for a while we're seeing managed decline of the Blast and seeing little this season to persuade me otherwise. How long before the powers that be start a conversation about the competition not being financially viable?

View attachment 43535
pic stolen off twitter
Moves to take the Hundred back to a 20/20 format whilst selling off chunks of the Hundred franchises to private investors all point to the planned killing off the Blast.
ECB killed the Sunday league, they've allowed the 50 over tournament to be run down to a B level tournament.
Genuinely hard to see how they've let the 20/20 be rundown from it's former popularity. The Hundred and Sky are the main authors of the 20/20 decline.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Got tickets for the Womens T20 World Cup next year. Opening game at Edgbaston and Final at Lords.

Weird system they're using. You select Gold, Silver or Bronze tickets but can't select an actual seat. In fact there's not even a ground plan that shows you which price band relates to where in the ground.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
really pissing me off how everyone involved is killing off the blast. with the exception of the IPL all around the world you hear complaints that fans don't feel connected to T20 sides because they're made up teams full of guns for hire players.

we had what everyone else wanted, teams people gave a shit about because they've supported them all their lives, and they're happily throwing it away for the hundred.

double header at Edgbaston today, all midlands teams playing, decent weather, and the place is empty. Similar games in the past I've been to have been not far off sell outs. won't be long before we get the 'the blast isn't commercially viable' stuff coming from the ECB.

GtaMq0nWIAAvNa8.jpeg
 

SBAndy

Well-Known Member
really pissing me off how everyone involved is killing off the blast. with the exception of the IPL all around the world you hear complaints that fans don't feel connected to T20 sides because they're made up teams full of guns for hire players.

we had what everyone else wanted, teams people gave a shit about because they've supported them all their lives, and they're happily throwing it away for the hundred.

double header at Edgbaston today, all midlands teams playing, decent weather, and the place is empty. Similar games in the past I've been to have been not far off sell outs. won't be long before we get the 'the blast isn't commercially viable' stuff coming from the ECB.

View attachment 43635

Is the reason that the ‘franchisee’ is picking up the tab in respect of The Hundred, rather than the counties? Albeit taking from the counties their most viable income stream.
 

tisza

Well-Known Member
really pissing me off how everyone involved is killing off the blast. with the exception of the IPL all around the world you hear complaints that fans don't feel connected to T20 sides because they're made up teams full of guns for hire players.

we had what everyone else wanted, teams people gave a shit about because they've supported them all their lives, and they're happily throwing it away for the hundred.

double header at Edgbaston today, all midlands teams playing, decent weather, and the place is empty. Similar games in the past I've been to have been not far off sell outs. won't be long before we get the 'the blast isn't commercially viable' stuff coming from the ECB.

View attachment 43635
Having sold off large chunks of the Hundred to mainly IPL interest it'll become a 20/20 in 2028 and the BLast will disappear like so many other ECB tournaments/competitions. Much like the PL any increased money from the Hundred money will be swallowed up by players.
 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
I am sure when the blast started it was a quick tournament, it should go from start to finish in three weeks with less games and then you can attract the guns for hire.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
I am sure when the blast started it was a quick tournament, it should go from start to finish in three weeks with less games and then you can attract the guns for hire.
started off with a total of less than 50 games, now its up to 133, which isn't even the highest they've had it.

even with that many matches though it wasn't really a problem, they'd schedule the vast majority for during the summer school holidays.

then along came the hundred and since then they've flipped between having the whole tournament wrapped up before the hundred starts or having the group games before the hundred, then a 6 week gap until the knockout stages.

it seems odd to me that after a long period of year on year growth with Blast attendances there seems to have been a move to hike up prices at many clubs and that has coincided with a lot more midweek games.
 

tisza

Well-Known Member
really pissing me off how everyone involved is killing off the blast. with the exception of the IPL all around the world you hear complaints that fans don't feel connected to T20 sides because they're made up teams full of guns for hire players.

we had what everyone else wanted, teams people gave a shit about because they've supported them all their lives, and they're happily throwing it away for the hundred.

double header at Edgbaston today, all midlands teams playing, decent weather, and the place is empty. Similar games in the past I've been to have been not far off sell outs. won't be long before we get the 'the blast isn't commercially viable' stuff coming from the ECB.

View attachment 43635
Did the crowd increase much for the 2nd game?
 

tisza

Well-Known Member
See they've gone Pope over Bethell for the first Test. Think it's just about right if you're specifically looking at the No3 position for this series. But wouldn't be surprised to see Bethell in before the end of the series.
 

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