Sport
Big Bash crowds hit records for six!
The Big Bash League (BBL) has been the runaway smash hit of summer with the competition welcoming more than a million spectators throughout the 2015-16 season.
The domestic Twenty20 league has always been a popular spectator and television event, but the 2015-16 season has taken support to a new level. The BBL has said crowds for the league have been up all over the country and seven of the competition’s eight teams have set new crowd records.
New Ticketmaster partner, Sydney Thunder, completed the double in 2015-16, winning both the BBL and WBBL finals in fine form. The side has struggled in past seasons of the BBL, but they produced a fairy-tale victory to send Australian cricketing legend and Thunder captain, Mike Hussey, off in perfect fashion – and against his brother’s Melbourne Stars no less.
Ticketmaster has had long-standing relationships with three of the BBL’s clubs having provided ticketing services for Brisbane Heat at the Gabba, the Perth Scorchers at the WACA and the Melbourne Renegades at Etihad Stadium since the inception of the competition.
We welcomed a fourth BBL side to team for the 2015-16 season with Sydney Thunder appointing Ticketmaster to provide ticketing services for all their home matches at Spotless Stadium. We are extremely excited to have been a part of the Thunder’s journey and took great delight in seeing one of our partners holding the cup in both the BBL and WBBL finals.
Now in its fifth year, the BBL has attracted massive interest and provided many talking points and hugely entertaining cricket since the first match on December 18, which saw the Sydney Thunder take the points against their main rivals, the Sydney Sixers at Spotless Stadium.
More than 900,000 fans attended the 32 matches of the regular season and the average national television audience across the season of matches was in excess of 1 million.
Ticketmaster was very proud to assist the clubs we are associated with to hit big numbers throughout the 2015-16 BBL season. The Brisbane Heat set a crowd record for domestic cricket at the Gabba with a 33,783 attendance for the home side’s final match against the Adelaide Strikers.
A crowd of more than 41,000 attended Etihad Stadium for the Renegades’ grudge match against their cross-town rivals, the Melbourne Stars. Both the Renegades and Heat welcomed more than 110,000 spectators across their four home matches with average crowds in excess of 29,000.
Sydney Thunder and the Perth Scorchers play their home matches at significantly smaller venues (Spotless Stadium and the WACA) yet both teams played in front of large crowds at each home match. The Thunder had an average crowd of 19,332 and the Scorchers played in front of more than 80,000 spectators, with an average crowd of 20,273, for their four home matches.
Ticketmaster has had a long association with cricket in Australia. In addition to our partnership with many of the Big Bash sides, Ticketmaster has provided ticketing services for International Test and ODI matches for many years.
Ticketmaster has extensive experience when it comes to the nuances of cricket ticketing. We pride ourselves on giving our partners and customers the best and we look forward to continuing to build on our existing relationships with the Big Bash League, its teams and the venues who host their matches.
