Cricket Or The Stadium? Which Is More Important?

Just under a month ago the schedule for the 2021 Ashes Cricket series between Australia and England was revealed.

Having retained the Ashes in England two years ago, Australia will understandably be desperate to hang on to the little urn on home soil.

Cricket is a game steeped in tradition, some may argue too much so. However those who follow the sport love that about it. Hence why they struggle now to keep track of which teams are playing each other and where at various times of the year. The regular cyclical tours have become a thing of the past.

The Ashes series in Australia has also tended to be a given in terms of where most of the Test matches will be played and when. The opening Test of the series is traditionally played in Brisbane. The Boxing Day Test match is always played in Melbourne at the MCG, while the Test Match over the New Year is traditionally always held in Sydney.

Perth and Adelaide have been the hosts for the other two Test matches. Adelaide has, since the turn of this century been the host of the second Test and Perth the host of the third, Melbourne the fourth and Sydney the fifth Test.That will not be the case this Summer.

Brisbane will host the first Test, Adelaide the second, Melbourne the third, Sydney the fourth and Perth the fifth.

Having not been awarded a Test match in 2020 when India toured Australia, Perth fans were pleased that they were back on the schedule. The reason for the omission it was claimed was because India only played a four test series, and when they previously toured Brisbane had missed out. What seems strange and almost patronising is that India still only play a four test series, after all at the time of writing they are the number one ranked Test playing nation. Surely they too deserve a five test series?

The reason that Perth has been given the fifth Ashes test has been packaged up as being a tactical move by Cricket Australia as should the series go down to the wire Perth could potentially be the decider, and Australia, boast a strong record in the west.

That strong record no doubt is based on the national team’s success rate at the WACA. Perth now has the new 60,000 multi-purpose Optus Stadium and this is where the Ashes Test is scheduled to be played. A very different place to the historic WACA ground, where the wicket will be of the drop in variety.

The Ashes Test matches were always proposed to be played at the new stadium even before construction started, however it was billed as only being the venue for the “big games.” The Test matches where the public were clambering over each other for tickets.

Despite that initial promise the 60,000-seat venue has hosted two Test matches since it has opened, one against India in December 2018 and a day-night fixture with New Zealand in December 2019. Against India Australia recored a win by 146 runs, against New Zealand it was another win for Australia by 296 runs, so Australia does indeed have a strong record at the venue!

The crowds for the Test against New Zealand were as follows: day 1 – 19,081, Day 2 – 20,018, Day 3 – 17,107 and Day 4 – 9334. A total of 65,540 over the four days (Stats courtesy of Austadiums). So the capacity of the stadium available for one day was only just passed in four days! Day one of the Inaugural Test match to be played at the stadium only attracted 20,746, when India were the opponents. Day 2 of this Test was down to 19,042.These figure were explained away at the time by the WACA Chief Executive Christina Matthews as being a backlash of “Sandpaper gate.” She was quoted as telling SEN

“I don’t think it’s the team, I think Australian cricket as an entity is on the nose and a little bit of trust has been lost. What happened in South Africa was kind of an insult to everybody and how they feel about the game. We follow that up a few months later with the cultural review and let’s say the lack of foresight on Cricket Australia’s part to see how the public was going to react to that. You live and learn.” Yet a year later the numbers were still disappointing. Especially when they estimated far bigger numbers coming through the turnstiles.

It has been reported that the agreement between Cricket Australia, the WACA and the Western Australian Government is that if 15,000 fans are expected each day during the first four days of a Test match then it will be played at Optus Stadium.

There is no need to ask why, as clearly the Government and the management company want to see the venue being utilised.

However are the fans being forgotten in all of this?

There is nothing worse than sitting in a vast stadium watching sport with large swathes of seating empty. The atmosphere is dreadful, and that in turn impacts on your enjoyment of the whole match day experience. So far at the stadium the biggest crowd on a day of a test match that we have been able to find is a third of the capacity of the stadium.

In normal times day one of the Perth Ashes Test match would be expected to be a sell out. However, with fans from England unlikely to be allowed to make the trip down under for the Ashes series due to the Covid Pandemic the chances of selling out will be heavily impacted. Throw in the fact that this will be the final test match in a five test series and that the outcome may well already be decided and the chances of a sell out are even more greatly reduced. This assumption is being made based on the poor statistics of touring teams achieving a series win away from home, and the fact that England has only won 14 of the 35 series played in Australia in over 120 years. Ten of those series wins came prior to and including 1955, so they have only won in Australia four times in over 50 years.

The promotion so far has been ‘come along and be a part of the first Historic Ashes test match played at Optus Stadium.’ The feeling is that the stadium is taking centre stage rather than one of the most historic sporting contests in the world. Surely the game itself is the centrepiece, not where it is being played?

Yet saying that if you want the venue to be the centrepiece and you want it to stand out as a venue then you are going to have to ensure you fill it. Ticket incentives similar to those employed when the stadium hosted the recent Dreamtime AFL match between Richmond and Essendon will need to be in place for the Ashes encounter. Hopefully they will order in enough food this time if that is the case. Optus Stadium has one chance to get this right. If the event fails to have the buzz that surrounds a test match when fans approach the ground and once they have taken their seats the venue runs the risk of losing more fans than winning them over. No amount of fancy lights will be enough to entice them back.

Based on the figures for the two test matches played at the stadium thus far and the fact that this will be the fifth test and that the series may already be decided common-sense would have said that this Ashes Test should be played at the WACA in front of a capacity 20,000 crowd. The chances are the ground would be close to capacity on the first three or four days. This looks better on television, it is better for the paying fans and the players. Most important of all it is better publicity for the city. Surely a full house at the WACA in 2021 would be the perfect carrot for those cricket fans thinking of coming on an Ashes tour post Covid? Will a half or third full stadium have the same effect? Or will it make them think they will by-pass Western Australia completely on that post-civid Ashes tour?