Talking Footy

Cricket Australia considering Big Bash expansion
Malcolm Conn and Robert Craddock
News Limited newspapers
January 12, 201212:00AM


Fan favourite: A record BBL crowd at the MCG for the Melbourne derby between the Stars and Renegades. Picture: Colleen Petch Source: The Courier-Mail

THE Gold Coast, Canberra, Newcastle and Geelong are all in the running to have a Big Bash team as soon as next summer as the reinvigorated Twenty20 competition continues to explode.

With ratings and crowds surging ahead of expectations, Cricket Australia has already began looking at further expansion years ahead of its original timetable.

And there will be an attempt to have Australia’s biggest stars play in more games outside their international commitments.

“It’s going gangbusters,” a Cricket Australia spokesman said. “We’re way ahead of where we thought we’d be.”

News Limited Newspapers revealed yesterday that Channel Nine was showing interest in the Big Bash, but only if all the Australian players were involved with a smattering of overseas stars.

However Big Bash boss Mike McKenna claimed the Fox Sports ratings were so good that industry experts claimed they would translate to the one million free to air viewers Nine demands.

“We believe that the Big Bash is already exciting with the players we have,” McKenna said. “Fans are already coming along and supporting it.”

Fox Sports ratings for the Big Bash have almost doubled from an average of 165,000 to 288,000.

Last month a match between Shane Warne’s Melbourne Stars and Chris Gayle’s Sydney Thunder attracted 472,000 viewers, an extra-ordinary number for pay television.

Veteran’s such as Matthew Hayden and Stuart MacGill coming out of retirement have added an extra dimension but the Warne factor has been enormous.

The ratings and crowds attracted to Melbourne Stars games make him worth the $500,000 package assembled to get him back on the park for as few as seven games.

Four of the six best crowds in the competition have been to see Warne’s Stars, including the competition high 40,000 who turned up last Saturday at the MCG for the Melbourne derby against the Renegades.

Warne was also responsible for the first Big Bash sell-out in Hobart last Monday of almost 14,000, which compares to a daily average crowd of 6000 for the Test against New Zealand last month.

CA optimistically budgeted for an average crowd of 16,000 a game in the new eight-team city-based competition, which replaced the traditional six state sides two years ahead of schedule.

But with the crowd average now almost 19,000 and ratings taking off, McKenna said preliminary planning has already began for a 10-team competition.

“We put in place a 20-year plan around the Big Bash with some milestones looking at expansion of the league, with one option more teams and another option more games,” McKenna said.

“That was a lot further in the distance than what we think now.

“If it continues to be as successful as it is at the moment ….expansion of teams or games is certainly possible on a sustainable basis.

“People are wanting more.

“It’s certainly exciting enough that there are markets in Australia who have shown interest in the game.

“Geelong, Gold Coast, ACT and Newcastle have populations which are attractive to us who aren’t served by international cricket.

“There is definitely scope to look at expansion in the near future.”

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6242051179