Poor local attendances

D4N said:
Only CSA is to blame
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Surprised no one has blamed the ANC

Seriously, cricket is not as popular in SA, and SA itself has less attendance at all sorts of sports...the mindset is different.

My brother lives 5 min from Newlands, loves both rugby and cricket but wouldn't be bothered going to watch it even though it is peanuts for him.
 
OzzieCapie said:
Surprised no one has blamed the ANC

Seriously, cricket is not as popular in SA, and SA itself has less attendance at all sorts of sports...the mindset is different.

My brother lives 5 min from Newlands, loves both rugby and cricket but wouldn't be bothered going to watch it even though it is peanuts for him.
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I was once (seemingly) the only white guy at a PSL game in PE. Felt a little weird...
 
Granted, this was an Ashes series around December. If Australia came to us for 5 tests including boxing day an new years, the attendances would have been better than our current series with only two tests.

The other reason for low attendance in tests I think is general access and parking/traffic to stadiums. You have to park in streets far from the stadium with lots of traffic. Reliable public transport around 50km from the stadia might help with this.

I still remember in the early 90's they used to broadcast the provincial currie cup matches on SABC or mnet. But those days being we had very little other sports to watch. These days SS brings you coverage of other tests matches and internationals and things like IPL, Big Bash and local ODI and T20. So there are lots more profitable content to show that the 4day series. It will be nice if Supersport can start showing the Supersport series top games, maybe one or two matches. Problem is also the Protea players very rarely play the local longer version of the game. At one point they wanted to try out night games which I think is worth a try.
 
How about quotas ?


Perhaps the lack of representation at provincial level is a hindrance to attract larger crowds....


Fact. There are still very few africans players at provincial level.... their ability to be good enough or not is another debate.


The socio-economic status surrounding black families having enough money to go out and support their local teams is another issue...
 
SinghDude said:
How about quotas ?

Perhaps the lack of representation at provincial level is a hindrance to attract larger crowds....

Fact. There are still very few africans players at provincial level.... their ability to be good enough or not is another debate.

The socio-economic status surrounding black families having enough money to go out and support their local teams is another issue...
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Perhaps the talk of quotas are causing people not to trust that it's the best team on the field any more.

The same with the Hansie match-fixing saga, that did untold damage to cricket in SA and I've never really had the same interest in SA cricket again.
 
For me it's all money related.
I used to go to provincial games at St Georges when I was in school.
Any excuse to go to castle corner and get pissed.

You used to get decent turnouts at local games.
 
I reckon it's time for CSA to display the Monza 160i GSi at the ground of each match day. Will be sure to pull in the crowds...
 
I'm from Bloemfontein (please keep the sorry to hear that comments)

..but back to the question, the overall experience stinks. I have to pay to watch a side selected by the government, what happened to the days of players with character? I can remember watching guys like Franklin Stephenson, Bradley Player, Kosie Venter, Chris Craven, not international players, but guys who could entertain and were there on merit. Beer was cheap and we use to have Spur and Nandos stalls at the games with some decent grub available.

Now I have to pay R 50 to watch a lot of ****ers play PLUS if I want food then a soya burger with a stale bun for R 40 has to do the trick?

There is simply no excitement in our cricket, even the tv broadcasts, anyone been listen to the Big Bash comm lately, the banter that goes on the the comm box and the passion those guys have can even keep my wife entertained. We have Jon Kent and Paul Harris.
 
MickeyD said:
Interesting question from a mate of mine, an ex-provincial player...

Slightly edited:



Your thoughts?
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If Australia were losing the Ashes, do you think the stadiums would be that filled?!
 
|3ash3r said:
If Australia were losing the Ashes, do you think the stadiums would be that filled?!
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What was the attendance like for the first came compared to the last game? You could also argue that the last two games were 'nothing' games because the series was already won. Where there lest attendees for the last two games? I don't think so.
 
|3ash3r said:
If Australia were losing the Ashes, do you think the stadiums would be that filled?!
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Probably wouldn't make a difference, their stadiums were filled the last time they lost it at home. And even during the current Big Bash tournament, and that's a local event.
 
They have a cricket culture over there that we don't have.
They dress up, have fun, etc.

Imo even if they loose they're still packing grounds.
 
Guess you guys are right! I remember back in the 90s that we had a similar culture (not the dress up for a game part of the culture) with packed grounds at Centurion and Wanderers with the kids playing their cricket games behind the scoreboard at Centurion. There were times that there were so many people at the cricket that at lunch time there was no space left to go onto the cricket ground so you had to be content with sitting in your seat or on the grass embankment while watching people have fun.
 
I took this picture on the 1st day of the 3rd Ashes test at the WACA.G0010573.jpg

Ironically there were fewer attendees at this Pro20 game between Perth and Melborne (notice the top stands that are empty). GOPR1063.jpg
 
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