Attendances at Test/ ODI Matches

[Dr Cricket]

Also Indian fans have no reason to attend the games they got the World Cup next year which is so expensive anyway to get their fix.

[Dr Cricket]

TBH prices not that bad I paid way more before.
Wonder what sky making of this with their huge tv deal.
Got a feeling ecb gonna *modded* up the tv deal big time.
scary times ahead for ecb.

[sussexpob]

You can currently get tickets tomorrow for £21 quid. You can get tickets to Trent Bridge for £25 on the 1/3 days. You can get tickets in Southampton for £40 on all the first three days. Thats for adults through the official websites. These arent exactly that expensive, are they?

If the fixture list falls the right way, on a given weekend over 150,000 people in Birmingham, or its direct urban conglomeration, are watching football live. This takes into account the bigger two teams are not actually in the top flight, and are not selling out. Cheapest ticket to Villa's game v Wigan, their next league match - currently £33. They averaged nearly 35,000 per match last season, over a course of 23 games they hosted. Nottingham has County, Forest, Derby all close. £28 quid cheapest ticket. Averaged 24,500 last year. Worth noting that if you drew a line of about 50 miles round these two places, how much competition they have to put up with for fans. But in the same geographical areas cricket cant get people to pay £21 quid for a whole days entertainment, the national team vs the best test side in the world? Cant fill a stadium of 16,000?

There is more to it then prices. Prices havent exactly gone up that much, I specifically remember going in what would have been 2006 or 2007 to Lords, when a rather unfancied and frankly terrible Windies side toured, and the prices were £65 quid minimum. I think the cheapest are still the same, or about £70 instead. Its a third of what is available tomorrow.

People would pay if they thought they were going to see something entertaining and relevant. In my opinion, maybe a lot like me, fans are so pissed off with the nonsense of administration in the game, being disregarded or talked about like idiots, they find it increasingly hard to find the motivation to go. If someone offered me a free ticket I wouldnt travel to see it. Ill watch it on tv no doubt tomorrow, follow the series, but wont go out of my way. Its kind of hard to support a team whole heartily with so many uninspiring people in it. Would I pay to see someone like Rashid bowl, or has it got that bad, Id rather see him fail so people in charge might wake up.

Lets be honest, not hide behind a pound sign. The future of cricket is bleak, and if the ECB continue to steer the ship in the wrong direction, very soon we will be talking about summer test series as a thing of the past. Falling sales for marquee tours are a very worrying health check.

[sussexpob]

And pricing in sports tickets has generally gone up, but attendances in most sports are on the rise I believe. Look at Wimbledon, you have to pay £35 quid just to get into the venue, but that doesnt actually guarantee you access to see any tennis. For court access you have to pay another ticket, the cheapest (only on the first day for the worst courts) is £42 quid. 500,000 people went to Wimbledon over 12 days this year. People still paid these crazy prices.

[DiligentDefence]

Prices quoted are not too bad but I suppose I have now got out of the habit. Also have to add on peak train fares.

[yuppie]

I though Wimbledon was 25 quid this year and that gives you access to the outside courts?

42 quid would get you a seat on court 3, but if you purchased ground admission for 25 quid you would still get the chance to see plenty of tennis on courts 4 to 18. Unless something has changed drastically in the last few years?

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/tickets/ ... _know.html

[Durhamfootman]

surely the elephant in the room is pay per view tv. Remember the queues around OT in 2005 for the final day? people had been watching it on TV in their millions and suddenly the chance to go cropped up. Now people watch cricket in their hundreds of thousands... maybe even tens of thousands... hard to enthuse people who no longer watch cricket on their telly.

I agree it isn't the price of tickets, but at the same time a £25 ticket almost certainly guarantees that you get to sit in the middle of a crowd of people who just want to get as pissed as they can, as fast as they can... where a days cricket involves constantly having to get to your feet to let the same people go backwards and forwards, repeatedly, to the bar in the morning, the toilet in the afternoon, and building the longest beer glass snake in the world after tea, whilst shouting foul abuse, singing vulgar songs and generally making the sort of racket usually reserved for kicking out time on the high street. They buy 4 pints at a time because the bars can't cope, they piss anywhere and everywhere because the toilets can't cope, they throw up everywhere because they can't cope and the stewards spend all their time trying to eject stupid, drunk people to cat calls and jeers

Of course I'm a snob these days, but I wouldn't have a £25 ticket given to me. I'll stick with the more expensive tickets, thank you very much... and invest in some ear plugs to drown out the noise of the louts in the £25 seats on the other side of the ground

[Arthur Crabtree]

I think the price still has an effect. There will be people who might be tempted by £10 who won't be able to afford £30-40.

PPV is all part of the diminishing interest.

Of course it was the ECB antagonism-drive after the Mitchwash that turned me off. But the present team doesn't really grab me either. And the scenario Durham describes was making the Tests less attractive.

[sussexpob]

The 21 quid ticket was actually in a specified no alcohol zone . I thought that's why no one wanted it

[Arthur Crabtree]

I used to get those tickets for the absence of anarchy, but they are usually in the worst stand.

[Durhamfootman]

sometimes no alcohol zones are very small sections sandwiched in between very large 'as much alcohol as you throw down your neck before the lunch interval' zones.

[Alviro Patterson]

£21 for one corner of the ground compared to £56 for half the ground (where most of the empty seats are) is not the best of comparisons.

No India test in the North of England neither, looks like i'll stick to T20 Blast and the County Championship then.

[Dr Cricket]

be interesting to see how the indian fans numbers are like first ECB tour where Bharat army have a stand or seats for the indian fans.
only lords isn't allowing special access to bharat army members.
Bharat army access is partly the reason why England were outnumbered in the white ball games since vast majority of the members are in it for the icc events and white balls games.
TBH if I was in charge of ECB I think I would just give cheap tickets or give always to British Asian clubs and members and hopefully integrate them and get them into England grounds.
insane to have a market of British Asian that love cricket, yet don't buy tickets for england or english county games.
Just can not get my head around that.

One thing I would change and hopefully it could be marketing tool is that it is ok too support both teams.
they should be a marketing push to make it ok for teams to support pakistan or India and then Support England.
it really gets on my nerves when people say I shouldn't support or talk about england.
wouldn't surprise me if that is the reason why number of Asian fans watching England is very low because they just cannot be accepted as England fans when they are fanatical or supporting others teams as well.

[sussexpob]

£21 for one corner of the ground compared to £56 for half the ground (where most of the empty seats are) is not the best of comparisons

If these were the only handful of cheap tickets in the ground, then if price mattered, they'd be the first sold. They have been, so the idea people wont pay loads of money to go isnt well established.

No India test in the North of England neither, looks like i'll stick to T20 Blast and the County Championship then.

Didnt you recently fly to NZ via Taiwan when England were there? The 60 miles from Leeds to Nottingham in comparison is a bridge too far? The Barmy Army took 10,000-15,000 to the last Sydney test depending on where you look. The Australia tourist board think they spend near 15,000AUD a person on these trips on average.

So people are happy travelling 26 hours on a plane, spending their life savings, to attend one match as far away is basically physically possible, but when it comes to an hour in a car and £21 quid, this is too much.

It doesnt make much sense. Other sports are doing it. The football spending league shows you how much people are spending. Expecting a cricket fan to spend £50 quid on a ticket is hardly revolutionary.

[sussexpob]

PPV has probably had a massive effect on connecting people, but my guess is the shorter term money for the ECB is like a drug for their coffers. Its hard to ignore the short term cash and see the end game. The 100 was going to be its out with BBC coverage, but then they seem to have badly started to mess this up.

As for other points, it seems the expectation is for cheap tickets, with great views, and surrounded by like minded people who enjoy the game in the same environment as you want. Maybe deep down, its that people dont actually like going, or have had bad experiences.