Revamped ... The new-look Big Bash League mirrors the colour and pageantry of American sport. Source: AAP
Cricket Australia revamped its flagship Twenty20 competition, known as the Big Bash League as of last season, with state teams replaced by franchises, a bright colour palette and a level of hype and hyperactivity more X-Games than gentleman's game.
CA looked to the United States, world leaders in fan engagement, and brought a new experience to an old sport. It was a risk, and they were panned by many in the establishment media, who gagged at the mere mention of "franchise" and "cricket" in the same sentence.
CA found a new home for it on Fox Sports, who took a fresh look at the production. The teams' media reps brought fresh enthusiasm and a lot of fun to the concept, and most players embraced it too.
David Warner's Test commitments kept him from playing a significant on-field role but he joined the spirit off it, stripping down to the waist to pose on a magazine cover, photoshopped to look like the Incredible Hulk.
State teammates found themselves on rival city franchises and engaged in excited banter for our entertainment on Twitter.
There were some issues with availability, and some squads appeared to become desperately thin with the big boys missing.
But it was a hit, a Chris Gayle-sized hit. Average audience ratings on Fox Sports were up over 80 per cent on the previous state-based T20 competition. Attendance for all BBL matches was 550,328 (80 per cent greater than the previous record) and 10 per cent of fans were attending their first cricket match.
The freshness of the concept resulted in an estimated $94.5m in media exposure value against $13m in 2011 and that brought a significant rise in national awareness. It was an online success, too, with more than a million visits to the Big Bash website.
The man in charge of delivering a successful competition is BBL Manager Anthony Everard.
BBL|01 was a massive hit, what was driving that success?
Anthony Everard: The fact that we play our games at a great time of year, that the games are scheduled through the middle of the school holiday period when people have time on their hands, that it's a value for money proposition and once you are there it's three hours of non-stop entertainment.
The anecdotal feedback and the deeper research indicates people who go to games have a fun experience and that's why it has such strong appeal.
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We're happy with the results from year one but there's upside as well. We play in big venues and we want to make sure those seats are filled. There's no question we have gotten off to a great start but there's no doubt we have greater aspirations for the future.
Were the results for season one above your expectations, and is there a pressure now to push on further?
AE: There's no question we were delighted with a lot of the metrics from the first year of the Big Bash. It's always difficult when launching a new competition to set realistic expectations. But almost without exception – attendances, TV ratings, the overall interest levels and positive feedback and momentum – it's fair to say we were ahead of our expectations.
To a certain degree the pressure is on us to better that. In the first year you have the luxury of not knowing where the numbers will end up. We now have record pay TV ratings and a number of venues had sold out games. There is no question we have on-going high expectations for the Big Bash.
There was some snobbery directed at the competition last season. Should that disappear now?
AE: People are always going to be entitled to their opinions and any time you launch a new league you'll get a variety of feedback. The important thing for us was to try and make people understand why the BBL was launched the way it was last year. We had a product available that broadens the appeal of our sport. Cricket is fortunate to have three forms of the game and each has different levels of interest from different demographics.
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We wanted to make sure via the Big Bash that we got more young people, families and females involved in the game. We've had some good success, albeit in a short time, and we're confident the strategy is the right one.
There is a distinct American accent to what you are doing, with bands and kiss-cams. You recently joined some other CA staff on a fact-finding mission to the US and have hired American consultants. What is the strategy there?
AE: What is particularly appealing to us from what the US leagues and teams have done is the way they focus their events, and experiences of the events, around the requirements of their fans. One of the key priorities of the BBL is that fans are central to what we do.
We consider ourselves very much an entertainment proposition and believe fans come to the games to have a great experience. We have looked at the States – Major League Baseball, LA Galaxy games in MLS and the X-Games are all events we attended. It was a great opportunity to see how those American sports make fans a central part of the entertainment experience, through a number of ways – vision screens, the way they bring fans into the venues.
We expect to see at the upcoming BBL a number of initiatives the teams have learned from that and can adapt to give our fans a greater experience at BB games.
Success inevitably brings talk of expansion. What's your timetable for more teams?
AE: We haven't locked ourselves into a timetable. We've only had one season and we're still a month away from the second. We still feel there's a job to do in establishing the existing teams in their local markets.
One of our overarching objectives is to attract new audiences. We feel there is still plenty of upside in doing that with the number of teams and games we have now. I would suggest we're a little way off pushing into new markets with new teams. Down the track, once we have a solid foundation, yes we certainly have aspirations to grow the league and grow the game.
Watch the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash League Live and Exclusive, and in High Definition, on Fox Sports. Get Foxtel.
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