what’s worse is service at the cricket is the embodiment of the class system. If you pay $400 you get whatever food & drinks you want & lift access from the carpark or the footpath, if you pay $40 you have to line up & drink mid strength alcohol in plastic containers surrounded by coppers. I don’t know how many suites I’ve been in but I don’t remember any random copper walk throughs ever.
I was thinking about going with my son to either the Lords or Oval tests, but have been put off by the prices. I wasn't too bothered about the one-sided aspect of the matches so far, as there's still plenty of good cricket to watch in these games. It doesn't help that the matches are so late in the summer when either the kids are going back to school (and therefore more parents are going back to work full-time), or going away on holiday. A few friends went to watch the Hundred as the prices were good and they were on on convenient days in the height of summer. It wasn't the 5-ball "sets" and the funky team names that attracted them to those Hundred matches, it was the prices, timing and having them in decent venues that appealed.
Ludicrous ticket prices and (at Lord's) a rotten seat allocation system. I gave up even applying for tickets when the ticket prices reached c£200. Including very moderate food and drink, and expensive transport, it had become £500 to take my son to a day at the Test. So ended a tradition in my family that had begun nearly a century ago. If I could watch the video feed with no commentary, but just the ambient noise, including the crack of ball on willow and the Lord's crowd hum, I wouldn't miss it at all.
I watched England in New Zealand in both Wellington and Tauranga. Met lovely Kiwi pensioners who pay less for all FIVE DAYS than one day at Lord's. Went against West Indies, felt ripped off so won’t go to Lord's or London again and I saw my first test against New Zealand in 1965 when tickets for kids were 2/- yes TWO SHILLINGS, TEN PENCE today
I paid about £65 for the 1st day at Edgbaston this summer for an adult and child ticket, pretty good that. Also going to see Eng v Aus at Trent Bridge for similar next week. It's not all grounds all the time.
I went on a restricted view ticket (£65) and just sat wherever due to the poor attendance. For me, even against Australia a ticket for day 4 should be somewhere around that price, days 1-3 should follow the same price, day 5 should be £20 tops, day 4 should fit in a mid-range price, not £100+. That felt like a Monday day 5 with not a lot to play for, rather than a Sunday day 4 with England going for a win.
All the technology these organisations have at their disposal, you'd think they could calculate the pricing and show enough flexibility based on the rate of sales, to ensure there will be a full or near-full house for every fixture. It's the atmosphere in the ground which inspires the players, it looks and sounds so much better on TV, and they aren't making money from empty seats. What gives?
One of the great books I would highly recommend is by Thomas Sowell Intellectuals and Society , the visions of the anointed and how badly these folk gets things wrong and the enormous damage they do , it is a truly enlightening book about our elites and superiors and intellectuals
My father was in the Theatre ,and always said a 2000 seat theatre quarter full at £20 made 10k a full theatre at £10 made 20k + the added hospitality sales and atmosphere improvement . The theater hasn't learnt nor test cricket sadly!
End of the road for five day tests in England against all bar the big two. You don't need more than 354 overs for a Bazball test with a Dukes ball. So play tests 1 and 2 Thursday to Sunday, then Test 3 Saturday to Tuesday. 10.40 or 10.50 starts, 2 hour 10 minute sessions plus 30 minutes. Run penalties for anything under 14 overs per hour - forget WTC deductions. Turns out losing the draw as a potential outcome to a test match wasn't a good idea after all. A combination of cheaper fourth day prices and at least two viable match outcomes are needed to bring people in.
Nothing will be done. There’s nobody in charge who is motivated to serve the game in the long term. In economics we look at motivation - not what people say, what people in their roles are motivated to do. The ecb is motivated to make money for itself in the short term. The icc same. Nobody cares what happens in 20 years. I’m old enough to remember when test cricket went behind a paywall. We were told the ecb would invest the extra money in grassroots cricket to offset the fact most kids wouldn’t be seeing it anymore. It never happened. We’re still waiting. Meanwhile youth participation in cricket goes down year on year. Viewerships are from what I can see very poor. The low number of views on the sky cricket page is shocking. The test match highlights are low, and other forms of cricket are close to zero. The women’s 100 final had under 1000 views two days after it was uploaded. That’s essentially zero views, zero interest. There’s enough older viewers who are willing to pay for test match tickets in London (but not much else) and tv paywalls. But what about in ten or twenty years, when these fans haven’t been replaced. The game in England is in major decline.
Australia and India will always garner those prices because they know they'll sell. For anything else, you have to look at halving the prices for anyone thinking of going otherwise yeah the pricing will only accelerate cricket's decline. And if there ever is a day 5 at any of these tests, then that's a freebie. They've got to be more flexible.
Crazy prices ,would love to go to a test match but with travel cost and gate prices make it too expensive, shame on England cricket, still making it elitist
Ticket prices don't put people off when it's Australia or India. I'd say it's more to do with the one-sided nature of all 5 Tests this summer, it's boring to watch. For sport to be entertaining it needs to be competitive with the result in doubt.
I think this counts a bit, but Australia and India also have the big name players that draw in the crowds. I would have struggled to name the WIndes or Sri Lankan players before these series, so they don't have quite the pull of the famous players. The trouble is with one-sided games is that you're not going to risk planning on going to the 4th or 5th day as they are likely to not happen. But the first couple of days still should provide good cricket, even if it is a bit one-sided. It's also worth remembering that India still get well-supported by Indian-Brits who live here, so you always get a good turn-out from the 'away' fans to create a great atmosphere.
@@davem9204 I agree and maybe in the future we'll only play Australia and India in Tests, because nobody else will be able to draw the crowds or provide competitive opposition. South Africa and Pakistan have been in a decline for a while, New Zealand punched above their weight for a long time but don't have the resources to match the big three. Overall there aren't enough strong Test teams to produce competitive cricket.
Overpaid players terrible product awful scheduling. The whole thing propped up by yes men journalists and giggling women. Eng v Aus at Durham 3rd week Sept, ludicrous
what’s worse is service at the cricket is the embodiment of the class system. If you pay $400 you get whatever food & drinks you want & lift access from the carpark or the footpath, if you pay $40 you have to line up & drink mid strength alcohol in plastic containers surrounded by coppers. I don’t know how many suites I’ve been in but I don’t remember any random copper walk throughs ever.
I was thinking about going with my son to either the Lords or Oval tests, but have been put off by the prices. I wasn't too bothered about the one-sided aspect of the matches so far, as there's still plenty of good cricket to watch in these games. It doesn't help that the matches are so late in the summer when either the kids are going back to school (and therefore more parents are going back to work full-time), or going away on holiday. A few friends went to watch the Hundred as the prices were good and they were on on convenient days in the height of summer. It wasn't the 5-ball "sets" and the funky team names that attracted them to those Hundred matches, it was the prices, timing and having them in decent venues that appealed.
I didn’t go simply as it was too expensive yesterday
Ludicrous ticket prices and (at Lord's) a rotten seat allocation system. I gave up even applying for tickets when the ticket prices reached c£200. Including very moderate food and drink, and expensive transport, it had become £500 to take my son to a day at the Test. So ended a tradition in my family that had begun nearly a century ago. If I could watch the video feed with no commentary, but just the ambient noise, including the crack of ball on willow and the Lord's crowd hum, I wouldn't miss it at all.
I went to England v Australia in 1985 at Old Trafford. It cost me £6 that would be £22.78 today
I watched England in New Zealand in both Wellington and Tauranga. Met lovely Kiwi pensioners who pay less for all FIVE DAYS than one day at Lord's. Went against West Indies, felt ripped off so won’t go to Lord's or London again and I saw my first test against New Zealand in 1965 when tickets for kids were 2/- yes TWO SHILLINGS, TEN PENCE today
Even in the US, NFL tickets are reduced or increased based on the quality of the opposing visiting teams.
I paid about £65 for the 1st day at Edgbaston this summer for an adult and child ticket, pretty good that. Also going to see Eng v Aus at Trent Bridge for similar next week. It's not all grounds all the time.
💯💯💯💯.
Prices are shocking
I went on a restricted view ticket (£65) and just sat wherever due to the poor attendance. For me, even against Australia a ticket for day 4 should be somewhere around that price, days 1-3 should follow the same price, day 5 should be £20 tops, day 4 should fit in a mid-range price, not £100+. That felt like a Monday day 5 with not a lot to play for, rather than a Sunday day 4 with England going for a win.
All the technology these organisations have at their disposal, you'd think they could calculate the pricing and show enough flexibility based on the rate of sales, to ensure there will be a full or near-full house for every fixture. It's the atmosphere in the ground which inspires the players, it looks and sounds so much better on TV, and they aren't making money from empty seats. What gives?
One of the great books I would highly recommend is by Thomas Sowell Intellectuals and Society , the visions of the anointed and how badly these folk gets things wrong and the enormous damage they do , it is a truly enlightening book about our elites and superiors and intellectuals
He's also a right-wing lunatic.
I thought I'd try Lord's this year.
I was wrong.
My father was in the Theatre ,and always said a 2000 seat theatre quarter full at £20 made 10k a full theatre at £10 made 20k + the added hospitality sales and atmosphere improvement . The theater hasn't learnt nor test cricket sadly!
End of the road for five day tests in England against all bar the big two. You don't need more than 354 overs for a Bazball test with a Dukes ball. So play tests 1 and 2 Thursday to Sunday, then Test 3 Saturday to Tuesday. 10.40 or 10.50 starts, 2 hour 10 minute sessions plus 30 minutes. Run penalties for anything under 14 overs per hour - forget WTC deductions. Turns out losing the draw as a potential outcome to a test match wasn't a good idea after all. A combination of cheaper fourth day prices and at least two viable match outcomes are needed to bring people in.
Will International Cricket Tours be selling fourth day test match tickets for their tours?
Nothing will be done. There’s nobody in charge who is motivated to serve the game in the long term. In economics we look at motivation - not what people say, what people in their roles are motivated to do. The ecb is motivated to make money for itself in the short term. The icc same. Nobody cares what happens in 20 years. I’m old enough to remember when test cricket went behind a paywall. We were told the ecb would invest the extra money in grassroots cricket to offset the fact most kids wouldn’t be seeing it anymore. It never happened. We’re still waiting. Meanwhile youth participation in cricket goes down year on year. Viewerships are from what I can see very poor. The low number of views on the sky cricket page is shocking. The test match highlights are low, and other forms of cricket are close to zero. The women’s 100 final had under 1000 views two days after it was uploaded. That’s essentially zero views, zero interest. There’s enough older viewers who are willing to pay for test match tickets in London (but not much else) and tv paywalls. But what about in ten or twenty years, when these fans haven’t been replaced. The game in England is in major decline.
Australia and India will always garner those prices because they know they'll sell. For anything else, you have to look at halving the prices for anyone thinking of going otherwise yeah the pricing will only accelerate cricket's decline. And if there ever is a day 5 at any of these tests, then that's a freebie. They've got to be more flexible.
Crazy prices ,would love to go to a test match but with travel cost and gate prices make it too expensive, shame on England cricket, still making it elitist
Ticket prices don't put people off when it's Australia or India. I'd say it's more to do with the one-sided nature of all 5 Tests this summer, it's boring to watch. For sport to be entertaining it needs to be competitive with the result in doubt.
I think this counts a bit, but Australia and India also have the big name players that draw in the crowds. I would have struggled to name the WIndes or Sri Lankan players before these series, so they don't have quite the pull of the famous players. The trouble is with one-sided games is that you're not going to risk planning on going to the 4th or 5th day as they are likely to not happen. But the first couple of days still should provide good cricket, even if it is a bit one-sided.
It's also worth remembering that India still get well-supported by Indian-Brits who live here, so you always get a good turn-out from the 'away' fans to create a great atmosphere.
@@davem9204 I agree and maybe in the future we'll only play Australia and India in Tests, because nobody else will be able to draw the crowds or provide competitive opposition. South Africa and Pakistan have been in a decline for a while, New Zealand punched above their weight for a long time but don't have the resources to match the big three. Overall there aren't enough strong Test teams to produce competitive cricket.
Isn't Sunday a Protest/Riot day in London?
Maybe not many want to be confronted by those Hamas/Hezbollah supporters..
Overpaid players terrible product awful scheduling. The whole thing propped up by yes men journalists and giggling women.
Eng v Aus at Durham 3rd week Sept, ludicrous