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According to cricinfo 540000 is down on 2023 ticket sales, viewing figures down also apart from the final.

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KingofSpain wrote:

Hugely disappointing to lose another semi final but we did well to get that far with the resources available. We struggled to get big totals on the board and really lost momentum after losing Yates and Hamza.
The emergence of Kai Smith is a big positive and both Taz Ali and Booth made strides forward.
I keep saying it, but we really need a top class batting coach to improve these players. Look at Somerset and the talent they are producing along with vastly improving someone like Andy Umeed, who is unrecognisable from his time with the Bears. Time for Frost to go.
Robinson 's job surely now hinges on making T20 finals day as a minimum requirement. And the small matter of securing our championship status.
Think that's very hard on Frost. We currently have Sam Hain, Rob Yates Dan Mousley, and Jacob Bethell playing first team cricket with decent prospects in Hamza Sheikh, Kai Smith & Theo Wylie. Batting has been pretty consistent this season regardless of format, our problem has been taking 20 wickets in the championship.

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Regarding The Hundred, I accept that the BBC have a vested interest in talking up the competition. But, assuming that they didn't make up their statistics and were just a bit selective in what they quoted, it doesn't alter the fact that The Hundred does appear to have:

  • attracted new people to the game

  • brought families in

  • helped to promote the women's game

The numbers may be down and there may have been some freebies; but over half a million is a lot of bums on seats.

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Well balanced as ever Gerry. Just one point the Blast had about 1 million attendance prior to the Hundred and although the figures did vary year on year the trend was (maybe) up. That now seems to have gone down to about 800k. So something around 200k / 300k of the Hundred's attendance is cannibalising the Blast.

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Fair point (as ever!).

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The 100's data presentation yesterday (Done by them, not the BBC) wasn't a great piece of communication, and I speak as a communications manager of usually financial data. It didn't include comparative data of attendance and TV, which was crucial, but did with data of the women's game. Consensus seems to be the men's was attendance/tv was down.

In any case, the real issue is whether the 100 is meeting its goals or not. As Terry says I think it is broadly improving visibility of the women's game, attracting new supporters and making money for both men and women's games. As we're all long term supporters of cricket we just have to ignore it. And that's fine, I can do that.

Dark clouds are really the sell off of the 100 franchises. This could see money leached out of the game and out of the UK. I personally like the metro bank just the way it is. If the sell off ends with a massive firework jamboree 100 fuelled by US and Indian cash while good metro bank teams like Leicestershire and Gloucestershire go bust, then it's failed that competition, the CC and pathways in the UK. I think it will take 5-10 years to find out.

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It's alright to claim the Hundread has attracted newcomers to the game. However has it or has it just attracted people to the Hundread and once the games in their area have finished they go off to something else to provide an evening's entertainment? If these newcomers are not going on the watch some T20 or CC then this isolated tournament has failed.

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Totally agree, that's my penultimate sentence really. If 100 is simply a massive money making exercise with only exposure for itself, then it's failed cricket in the country. There will be some who don't care about this, and that's the danger.

LeicesterExile wrote:

It's alright to claim the Hundread has attracted newcomers to the game. However has it or has it just attracted people to the Hundread and once the games in their area have finished they go off to something else to provide an evening's entertainment? If these newcomers are not going on the watch some T20 or CC then this isolated tournament has failed.

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I have many gripes with The Hundread but the main 2 are always loads of talk about families as thought hey are banned from all other forms of cricket, when to look at T20 in the UK, you will see families everywhere so it isn't as if this new format has 'Saved Family Cricket' when it never needed saving. Also, bringing new supporters to cricket, great, but are these new supporters young and are they going to want to play the game. If the answer is yes, brilliant but they will not become Test cricketers because they will no doubt have no idea about why a team has to face 25-30 overs to get to 100 when they can do it in75 balls in The Hundread. Will they have the patience to want to watch a Test, if the answer is no, then they are unlikely to want to play first-class cricket and so therefore this whole competition will have served no purpose other than to bring in youngsters who want to play in The Hundread.

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It’s horses for courses.
I spoke to a fellow yesterday who knows I follow cricket but has never shown any interest himself. A friend of his got tickets to the eliminator at The Oval so he went along. He said it was very exciting, he thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely go to a 100 game again. He remarked how different it was to the ‘boring’ cricket that was on the BBC back in the day.
It’s definitely not for me but I can see the appeal for new audiences.

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Inside-edge wrote:

It’s horses for courses.
I spoke to a fellow yesterday who knows I follow cricket but has never shown any interest himself. A friend of his got tickets to the eliminator at The Oval so he went along. He said it was very exciting, he thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely go to a 100 game again. He remarked how different it was to the ‘boring’ cricket that was on the BBC back in the day.
It’s definitely not for me but I can see the appeal for new audiences.

I bet he will go to a few of these games and then he will find constant 6s and 4s becomes repetitive and boring and will move on to his next adrenalin fix. Could this be what the BBC are starting to find?

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Viewing figures are down a quarter. Shame, that.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/08/20/hundred-viewing-figures-bbc-sky-sports-olympics-tv-ecb/

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LeicesterExile wrote:

Inside-edge wrote:

It’s horses for courses.
I spoke to a fellow yesterday who knows I follow cricket but has never shown any interest himself. A friend of his got tickets to the eliminator at The Oval so he went along. He said it was very exciting, he thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely go to a 100 game again. He remarked how different it was to the ‘boring’ cricket that was on the BBC back in the day.
It’s definitely not for me but I can see the appeal for new audiences.

I bet he will go to a few of these games and then he will find constant 6s and 4s becomes repetitive and boring and will move on to his next adrenalin fix. Could this be what the BBC are starting to find?

You are probably right. I think he picked a good game to go to because it ended in a Jofra Archer super-over (or should that be a super-five?) so was probably better than the average 100 game.

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Cricket will always seem exciting when a game is close but after a few games, anyone new to it will realise there are very few really close games. I once asked someone if they liked cricket, they said "I like, one-day cricket..." and after asking why, she said it was exciting but I pointed out that it can be exciting whilst the team you are following, are winning and when they're batting, if 6's and 4's are flying about then yes it is but overall, the excitement goes downhill once the result is pretty obvious. I think, ultimately, that the Hundread will bring a few new fans to the game but it won't mean many more youngsters are playing it, I think that will happen if it gets back on terrestrial TV and if clubs are funded by money instead of a new format and maybe schools will play it if they are given equipment free.