TOPIC:

one idea might be to chuck the gates open after tea during work days so people can come down from the city to take in a few hours of cricket. 

Yes they do so do people in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia etc etc

Yes have also heard that the WACA will have a 15k capacity, absolute lost opportunity to have a decent 2nd stadium with a 25k capacity that could be used for multiple sports, primarily Cricket and WAFL footyAFL games so it could be used all year round. WAFL game of the round each week plus the GF ( minor finals should stay at the higher ranked teams home ground, that works well). All pre-lim BB games could be played there with any finals that the Scorchers host that would attract 25k++ back at Optus.

Unless WA get the chance to host tests against the Pomms, India or SA we wont get any 25k/day crowds, but the east centric CA will keep those big contests on the east coast in their greedy little hands.

Agree SS, should be 20K minimum at new WACA extending to 25 if needed. used all year round.

westaussieguy wrote:

Yes have heard some time ago the total attendance at the redeveloped waca is said to be being reduced to10 thou. Which seems small. Last I heard, the capacity was going to be increased to 15,000 people. Which is still a considerably smaller capacity than before. 

Problem is all cost and financial sustainability. The bigger you make it the more it costs to maintain and the more people capacity you have the higher the insurance costs which the waca being basically broke don't want.

This is not going to be a great summer for test cricket. Pakistan clearly are not in the hunt and the West Indies will be the same when they come here in January. It is hard to see any test lasting the full 5 days unless there are rain delays.
The next two summers are India then the Ashes, which should get the crowds returning. As for this summer. it just makes you look forward to the start of the footy season more than usual.

What did they expect WA people to do when once again thrown a 2nd or 3rd tier team as the test.

Been 4 years since we had anyone decent and they want to complain about numbers.

It is also the week leading up to Christmas and the cost of living is freaking hard work at the moment. Melbourne will get a big day 1 as usual but last year they had just 13000 on day 4. If we had a public holiday on day one I'm sure we would go better too.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the tour goes and if numbers are down everywhere. See how the trolls go if they barely crack 50K on boxing day. They had 64K last year which is well short of capacity and it was an ashes test.

swansfan4life wrote:

This is not going to be a great summer for test cricket. Pakistan clearly are not in the hunt and the West Indies will be the same when they come here in January. It is hard to see any test lasting the full 5 days unless there are rain delays.
The next two summers are India then the Ashes, which should get the crowds returning. As for this summer. it just makes you look forward to the start of the footy season more than usual.

West Indies are a joke and have been for ages now, in the 80s every venue would be packed out to watch Aussies take in Windies, those days won't be back, the game has died in the Carribean.  

Apart from that who have you got Sri Lanka, nup, SA , NZ maybe get a few, Afghanistan, Bangladesh ..lol

Ashes still pulls a crowd only for the history , India tends to be more of the local Indian despora these days which has exploded over the last two decades.

Depressing news this morning that several experienced West Indies players including Jason Holder have withdrawn from the 2 test tour of Australia so that they can concentrate on the upcoming T20 world cup in the US and the Windies. This coming on top of the IPL meat market the other day when Starc and Cummins were bought for millions.

I am not optimistic about the future of test cricket apart from games between the big three as players will be tempted more by the lucrative and growing T20 leagues around the world. We also have the variations of the Hundred in England and also 10 over competitions sprouting up in different places. More than enough cricket for any aspiring young player to make a good living and travel around the globe. Why would people choose to commit themselves to 5 day tests if they can represent their country in the shorter forms and earn a lot more income?
 
Unless there are dramatic changes in the future I can test cricket, apart from clashes between England, Australia and India being reduced to a curiosity which will be played in front of miniscule crowds like the Sheffield Shield is now.

If West Indies were a powerhouse like the 80's then they would play. It's exactly why Gayle opted to play everywhere else. His country was shit at Test cricket and he could earn 10X more in other leagues.