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The 16.4 is haemorrhaging money

B

brandon

Striker
£9 MILLION losses through two years according to this report, BUT, closer to £60 MILLION lost according to George Dobell (whom I’d trust with my life when it comes to cricket stories) when you factor in the bungs to the counties. Scrap it now before it kills cricket in this country.
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Can’t read the article as it’s behind a paywall but didn’t the ECB expect it to make a loss for the first few years? I’m not sure if they expected this much but I’m confused as to how this would ever be a money spinner, surely people will be less interested as time goes on. Doesn’t help barely any of the worlds top players want anything to do with it, unsurprisingly.
 
Let’s be honest, it was a stupid idea.

Alienating your core fans by changing the rules and franchises which eliminate any sense of identity is just stupidity. I couldn’t tell you a single player on the “roster” of the northern wizards (sponsored by toblerone), and have probably watched about an hour of it in total

What should they have done?

Promoted the blast. Got it on free to air tv, advertised it. Spent the money on foreign superstars if needed.

As dexy rightly says, if a gimmick doesn’t make money to start with, the joke gets old and it doesn’t make money in a few years.
 
It's scary but if something isn't done quickly our whole domestic system could collapse.

Yes they will sell tickets but the interest isn't there to make it profitable.

Everybody saw this coming except the ECB.
 
The Hundred will be here for at least another 5 years. If external investment comes (there was talk of a £400m figure previously) then it’ll be here for a lot longer and will be successful in the long run. If not, something else will replace it after 2028
 
The Hundred probably not the answer but a short format tournament in the middle of the summer the school holidays is paramount imo for the longevity of the game and to attract new kids to the game.

Watching dour drawn 4 day games on flat wickets in the summer is not attractive.

A lot of the 4 day games in the county championship last season were non result dour games
 
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A tournament making a loss initially is totally standard and shouldn’t surprise anyone.

It’s the scale of the numbers (and the fact they exclude the county payouts) that are the concern.

I was really confident that the 100 would be a success initially but I’m much less so now.
 
The longer it goes on like this, the less attractive it will be to investors. Crowds seem to have fallen, and as has been pointed out, the big overseas names don’t seem interested. How long can they continue sustaining these levels of deficit? Doomed.
 
Dexter said:
Can’t read the article as it’s behind a paywall but didn’t the ECB expect it to make a loss for the first few years? I’m not sure if they expected this much but I’m confused as to how this would ever be a money spinner, surely people will be less interested as time goes on. Doesn’t help barely any of the worlds top players want anything to do with it, unsurprisingly.
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It felt to me that the first year went quite well, probably thanks to the novelty value, but interest dropped off massively for the second season.

I.e. it's already shrinking, not growing.

Could just be me though - the first season my son couldn't wait for it to start when he got home from school and had almost no interest in the second season and that's what my sample is based on 😂
 
The lack of big quality overseas players is a massive own goal.

Any tournament wants and needs the best players and best quality available.

And there is no doubt ‘The Hundred’ has fell well short on that score and a miles away from the extremely successful IPL.
 
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Voice of fair play said:
The Hundred probably not the answer but a short format tournament in the middle of the summer the school holidays is paramount imo for the longevity of the game and to attract new kids to the game.

Watching dour drawn 4 day games on flat wickets in the summer is not attractive.

A lot of the 4 day games in the county championship last season were non result dour games
Click to expand...

If only there was some sort of cup where the games only lasted a day each or maybe even another one where the teams only batted for something like 20 overs each 🤔
 
I don't know why they're surprised international stars aren't wanting to partake in a game that isn't internationally recognised, and complicated rules for them accustomed to traditional cricket. We even invented the first 20 20 league and every country seems to have made a better go of it as a league than the ecb managed. Rather than admit the embarrassing issue they just decided to reinvent the wheel
 
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