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[Sam]

Says somewhere that the 8 bbl teams cover 66% of the aus population.
If uk went to ten franchises, it would only cover 22% of the population.

I think this is a key fact to consider personally when debating whether a franchise system would work. Compared to Australia we have a much more dispersed population.e ki

Regarding the kits with the current system I don't think away kits are really required, it's not like that many are too similar or it's really that important in a game such as cricket where instant identification is not required by players. Gotta admit I quite like the BBL style kits though.

[smilley792]

You have to choose one of two problems

18 teams to cover fans but not enough quality(and lack of international stars) means no one is watching.

8-10 teams means quality is higher in each team. But due to populations spread people may not be willing to travel to games.


10 franchise problem could be solved by said franchise playing it's home games across 2 or 3 stadiums to spread the population reach.


I me I'm from Sheffield.  It's a pain and expensive to get to headingley, but if they played in Sheffield I'd go to every game possible.

[edge]

There's definitely more than 36 international players out there! Plus not like every team has to have two megastars, that certainly isn't true in the BBL. An improvement in quality would be a good thing of course, but the IPL/BBL have shown that comes with time anyway.

Point with kit is more of an identity/marketing thing - bear in mind the only reason for coloured cricket kit in the first place was to improve fan interest! It's a small thing maybe, but it isn't a good look for two teams to be playing each other with very similar kit, or just for teams to have crap kit. Makes it harder for the fans to identify with the teams, confusion for new followers, plus heaven forbid if all the teams had awesome gear they might make a few quid in shirt sales. Genuinely a big part of why the BBL looks so good on TV I think, the kits grab you immediately.

[csnew]

Don't really expect anything to change with the old boys club at the top of the ECB. Particularly with Giles Clarke at the top:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/820585.html
Looks like he getting rewarded for a poor ashes, and the rest of the drama of 2014.

[smilley792]

18 teams will always present poor quality.

To get punters in you need high quality cricket (hence why tests against good teams sell out). And an 18 teams can't produce that.

No matter how it's dressed up, 18 team league 2 of 9 or 3 of 6. Your still gonna have counties putting out poor players.

Say every team gets 2 internationals.  That leaves 162 places in starting xi's. 
Does anyone seriously believe there's 162 county level cricketers in the england game currently? Because I don't.
And that's not mentioning squad players for injuries international call ups etc.


10 teams means a higher quality off player all the way down to 11, Meaning better quality games that people will pay to see.

[ProCricketer1982]

18 teams will always present poor quality.

To get punters in you need high quality cricket (hence why tests against good teams sell out). And an 18 teams can't produce that.

No matter how it's dressed up, 18 team league 2 of 9 or 3 of 6. Your still gonna have counties putting out poor players.

Say every team gets 2 internationals.  That leaves 162 places in starting xi's. 
Does anyone seriously believe there's 162 county level cricketers in the england game currently? Because I don't.
And that's not mentioning squad players for injuries international call ups etc.


10 teams means a higher quality off player all the way down to 11, Meaning better quality games that people will pay to see.

The boy has a point. Also, Clarke is being rewarded,for,destroying the game.. Ecb will never change.

[Gerry SA]

18 teams will always present poor quality.

To get punters in you need high quality cricket (hence why tests against good teams sell out). And an 18 teams can't produce that.

No matter how it's dressed up, 18 team league 2 of 9 or 3 of 6. Your still gonna have counties putting out poor players.

Say every team gets 2 internationals.  That leaves 162 places in starting xi's. 
Does anyone seriously believe there's 162 county level cricketers in the england game currently? Because I don't.
And that's not mentioning squad players for injuries international call ups etc.


10 teams means a higher quality off player all the way down to 11, Meaning better quality games that people will pay to see.

I already said this earlier in the topic...

[uknsaunders]

Part of the problem is the counties in some cases aren't where the population is now, its just based on an old boys club from the turn of the century. The Thames valley has more wealth and people than most of the counties but with no team they see no cricket unless they trek into London. Glasgow/Edinburgh are bigger than most cities but no team. Even Sheffield is bigger than Chelmsford or Hove. Put the teams where the people are and watch the attendance's rocket. Think it doesn't happen? Aviva Premiership! Wasps have gone from 6k at Wycombe to an average of 20k at Coventry (albeit a few thousand tickets were given away to school's).

If you put 12 or 15 teams in the right place you increase quality and audience.

[Sam]

Part of the problem is the counties in some cases aren't where the population is now, its just based on an old boys club from the turn of the century. The Thames valley has more wealth and people than most of the counties but with no team they see no cricket unless they trek into London. Glasgow/Edinburgh are bigger than most cities but no team. Even Sheffield is bigger than Chelmsford or Hove. Put the teams where the people are and watch the attendance's rocket. Think it doesn't happen? Aviva Premiership! Wasps have gone from 6k at Wycombe to an average of 20k at Coventry (albeit a few thousand tickets were given away to school's).

If you put 12 or 15 teams in the right place you increase quality and audience.

Surprisingly though Chelmsford/Essex regularly receive some of the most consistant crowds and sell near the top amount of memberships per season....

[TangoWhiskey]

Can't see London having three teams being right.

Anyway the Oval based team could easily play matches at the Oval and Olympic stadium.

Different ends of the city, be more likely to have the Lords based team over there.

[uknsaunders]

Surprisingly though Chelmsford/Essex regularly receive some of the most consistant crowds and sell near the top amount of memberships per season....

Going back to Wycombe, it's easier to fill a small ground. Good atmosphere but it's not going to drive attendences up or cater for the large swathes of thr UK population who live no where near a first class ground.

[Sam]

Going back to Wycombe, it's easier to fill a small ground. Good atmosphere but it's not going to drive attendences up or cater for the large swathes of thr UK population who live no where near a first class ground.

Still one of the highest membership numbers though apparently and the ground still holds 7000, higher than average for all county games if they sell out.

[Sam]

Interesting to note by the way, Colin Graves is set to become the new ECB chairman while Clarke has apparently created a new unelected post for himself so he can represent us with the ICC, and apparently has the intention of going all the way to heading the ICC.

If I remember correctly Graves was the one who suggested extending the CC to 21 teams. If you did that now and changed it to 3 divs, that would allow more space to fit in some sort of big t20 league in our fairly limited summer in comparison to others however obviously at the expense of the FC stuff.

[smilley792]

You say expense of fc stuff but a top division of 7. Should in theory supply better Quality constant cricket albeit over less games.

[Sam]

You say expense of fc stuff but a top division of 7. Should in theory supply better Quality constant cricket albeit over less games.

Yes, I meant in terms of the amount rather than the content . Arguably though the current top division already have pretty strong lineups in general at the expense of the second division.