How to Increase Fan Engagement in Cricket

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Cricket’s administrators should follow the women’s Ashes structure to increase fan engagement and TV revenue.

In 2013, the women’s Ashes was restructured to give one winner, taking into account performances across the Test, ODI and T20 formats. It was a huge success with greater national media interest than ever before. I think parts of the men’s game should learn from Clare Connor’s brilliant initiative.

Cricket has a problem – with three different formats it is hard to keep track. I have read a paper on David Kendrix’s ICC ranking system and studied how the County Championship points work. That probably defines me as a cricket nerd but I still have no idea which is the best county or even the best international team!

By combining the three formats into one competition, it would enable fans to understand what is going on throughout the tour.

cricket_format

International Example

Firstly, let’s take a typical England tour to India with 4 Tests, 4 ODIs and 4 T20s. I would then allocate:

  • 4 points for a Test win
  • 2 points for an ODI win
  • 2 points for a T20 win
  • Half points for a draw or tie

Enhancing Narrative

Work is then needed to make every match matter.

I think tennis does this fantastically well. Each game reaches regular climaxes with big implications for the overall match. The pressure boils over at the end of a set where risks are required and mistakes are costly.

We could do the same with cricket. Each “set” (1 x Test, 1 x ODI, 1 x T20) would take two weeks and could be repeated across the summer, providing broadcasters with regular scheduling:

Week 1
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
Test 1Test 2Test 3Test 4
Week 2
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
Test 5T20ODI

Each of these matches are important for the set and each set would be vital in the context of the overall series.

Consequences of points system

  • Match 1 (5 Day test): Starting the set and generating most points (4) allows test match cricket to retain its status as the most important match to win. Winning it would guarantee at least a draw in the set.
  • Match 2 (T20): Whatever the outcome of the test match, there would be everything to play for in the Friday evening big ticket T20. Off the back of a test victory, a team has the chance to clinch the set. A test defeat would position this a must win game.
  • Match 3 (Sunday ODI): Unless a team has won both the test and T20, there is still everything to play for in this deciding match, perfectly placed for a family day on the Sunday.

That would complete the set before we are back for another scintillating round starting with the test match.

Squad Dynamics

Player selection, rotation and management would become key strategies and talking points over the series. Perhaps, like in limited overs tournaments, the squad size could be restricted forcing players to excel at all formats or be tactically rotated by management. Would Cook be good enough to retain his place in a squad of 15 or would this give a chance to Alex Hales in test cricket?

An initial issue with a proposal like this is that players might find it hard to make constant format adjustments but shouldn’t that be part of the game? This is a proposal for fans not players.

Easy to Follow

The greatest advantage of this structure is how easy it is for fans to follow. With a consistent narrative built throughout the tour, we would remember key moments and know who the best team is rather than it being broken down by format. This is a big part of the 2013 women’s Ashes success.

When fans find sport easy to follow, it usually has positive implications for broadcasters. That, at least, should give encourage the game’s administrators.

Club Together

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How sports clubs can increase season ticket sales to 80% of sports fans by working together

Like many sports fans, I get my news from the BBC or Sky Sports app. This allows me to check the weekend football scores, flick to see who won the Grand Prix and discover stories about sports I don’t even follow. In the same vein, broadcasters are paying huge rights fees so that their paying subscribers have access to multiple sports.

Looking at research conducted by Mintel (see table below) there is clearly a large group of people in the UK who take an interest in several sports. With 29% of consumers watching five or more sports (by any method) over the last year, it would indicate that there is an opportunity for a package ticket that gives consumers a discount for attending multiple events.

Number of sports watched by any method%
None21
1 Sport16
2 Sports12
3 Sports12
4 Sports10
5 Sports6
6+ Sports23

Many clubs, particularly in the US, have started to focus on what fans wants by offering half season tickets or exploring other methods such as dynamic ticket pricing to increase attendances and revenue. I think this could be taken further and by working with other local sports clubs there would be an opportunity to increase attendances whilst providing better value for the fan.

Leeds Example

Three clubs in Leeds all need to increase the number of fans through the turnstiles (see table). By committing fans to attending two or three games in each sport, clubs would start to benefit from cross marketing to each other’s fans.

Leeds UnitedFootball55% Stadium Utilisation
Leeds RhinosRugby League75% Stadium Utilisation
YorkshireCricket<20% Utilisation

Add in a Yorkshire Jets netball match, an evening at the darts and a day at York races and suddenly the annual program for a sports fan is looking fuller and more enticing.

Model

Perhaps this could be sold to fans as a season ticket across sports with an annual financial commitment similar to season tickets or perhaps a similar model to TasteCard could be used.

TasteCard is a membership that gives customers 50% off at selected restaurants from Monday to Thursday (off peak). It has over 4.5 million members in the UK with over 800,000 active users. With an upfront payment of up to £80 a year, it has similar elements to a season ticket but is essentially a discount voucher that works across a variety of restaurants.

Sports fans could pay £25 for a membership that offers discounts for a selected number of matches each year. Two half price tickets for each sport would fill seats that are otherwise empty without clubs needing to drop their prices. Also, don’t forget about the friends they would bring along – on average tickets are purchased in groups of three.

Loss of business?

A risk of creating a scheme like this would be that current season ticket holders would downgrade. The “share of wallet” that a club has would be reduced and split amongst rival entertainment properties. This might be the case for some fans but season ticket holders are the most fanatic, most loyal supporters in the world. They are unlikely to reduce their number of home games from 20 to 2.

By providing a low priced entry point, this is a scheme that targets fans who attend two or three sports matches a year. The aim would be to encourage them to attend 5 or 6 matches, bringing 2 or 3 friends with them each time. Ultimately this brings more people to sport and all clubs, especially in less mainstream sports, would benefit.

With 33m seats sitting empty across the four main team sports in the UK, it would be fantastic to see clubs looking at initiatives like this.

A Ryder Cup for rugby?

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With a hugely successful 6 Nations behind us and Rugby World Cup approaching, I look at how rugby fans are treated to relatively little international competition rugby and how a few small changes would create a compelling tournament with similar aspects to golf’s Ryder Cup.

 

If we have any more days like Saturday (the final day of the 6 Nations), 2015 will be a boon for rugby fans and players alike, not to mention for sponsors, broadcasters and merchandisers. I am a rugby fan but it is the first time I have watched three back to back matches.

But the excitement surrounding the 6 Nations and the World Cup is a stark reminder of how little international competition rugby we are treated to in the UK. British teams, like their Southern Hemisphere counterparts, rarely compete in more than one tournament annually. Around the big competitions, we as fans snack on friendlies such as the Autumn Internationals, an annual tour of Southern Hemisphere teams to the UK, which while compelling, lacks the building narrative of a league or knockout format.

It is this narrative that had us all enthralled at the weekend, it is this narrative that would have a Welsh fan rapt by a Scotland vs. Argentina game, if it would indirectly affect the fortunes of their national team. As it happened, the friendly I have in mind in November 2014 didn’t even hold much allure for the Scots themselves; Murrayfield was left almost half empty.

The irony of the Autumn Internationals is they consistently boast the world’s best players, greatest showdowns and higher concentration of top ranked matches than the Rugby World Cup. Nearly half of its 2014 friendlies had winning margins of less than one try, yet we struggle to recall those winning moments. They simply didn’t matter as much to the fans, the press or the big business that surrounds our sport.

Rugby’s governors would merely have to tweak the Autumn Internationals to create a more exciting – and lucrative – competition. Considering the political and logistical impediments to changing international schedules, the most difficult part of what I propose (finding time in the schedules of the world’s greatest players and buy in from the governing bodies) has already been achieved.

The annual spectre of the Autumn Internationals could be refashioned into an annual tournament pitching the best of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres against each other. Think the Ryder Cup meets Lion’s Tour, think Super Bowl or Grand Final, think All Stars vs. Barbarians. If England’s recent World Cup performances in cricket and football are anything to go by, we may need another tournament.

Excited fans also attract business. The 2015 World Cup will generate broadcasting revenues in excess of £100m and sell over 2.3 million tickets. The 6 Nations generates £300 million in revenue each year, double that of the RFU (England’s governing body) a substantial amount of whose income comes from the 6 Nations. The Autumn Internationals could be much more profitable for each nation with the added ingredient of narrative.

Here’s how it might work:

Firstly, take the top six teams from each hemisphere:

Northern Hemisphere GroupSouthern Hemisphere Group
EnglandAustralia
FranceArgentina
IrelandFiji
ItalyNew Zealand
ScotlandSamoa
WalesSouth Africa

4 matches per team
Each team from the Northern Hemisphere Group would play four teams from the Southern Hemisphere Group including two of the “big three” – Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – and visa versa.

Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere battle
A similar points system would operate to the Rugby World Cup. Teams would collect points to climb the standings in their own group and also to build points for their hemisphere (or group) as a whole. Every point for every team would matter in the context of the Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere battle.

Grand Final
Following the end of the group stage, the top team from each Hemisphere would play a Grand Final worth double points for their Hemisphere. The build up to this final would be immense, there would not be a neutral supporter in the world.

Hemisphere with most points wins
A trophy and prize money would be awarded to the Hemisphere with the most points with prize money distributed to players based on how many points they won for their Hemisphere. A separate trophy would go to the winner of the Grand Final.

Cricket, football and athletics each have successful secondary tournaments that don’t come around every year. There’s little obstacle for World Rugby to follow suit. I can’t wait for the World Cup but I don’t want to wait another four years to see England play competitively against the likes of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

 

 

 

Money? Balls!

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Sports Teams are achieving low income in comparison to their media reach, I look at how that is changing and how teams are going about it.

We often hear about the increased commercialisation of sport – the price of football tickets, media rights fees driven up by pay TV channels and eye watering player salaries. However, a study by Decision Technology, a customer behavioural science company, shows that sports teams fail to generate revenues in line with their high social media indexes.

 

money_graph1

 

 

Sport does have unnaturally high engagement from its customers, in what other industry would customers paint their faces the colour of the brand’s logo? This is particularly evident on social media – of the 20 most tweeted TV airings in 2013, 12 were about sport (Perform and Kantar’s “Know the Fan” 2014 survey).

There are difficulties for sports teams when exporting their product. Apple can open stores anywhere in the world. Tech companies like Facebook and Google are prominent in nearly all connected territories. Manchester United, one of the most globally recognised sports brands has a well-developed licensing programme with many cafes and merchandise stores but these provide very different experiences to a home stadium, of which there can only be one.

So how will we see teams tackle this problem or opportunity?

Media Rights

Media rights continue to increase across world sport, the recent sale of Premier League rights in the UK saw a 70% jump on the previous agreement. Star now pay BCCI over $100m annually, considering the situation 30 years ago when BCCI were having to pay Dordashan (a local broadcaster) to show their matches on TV, this is not bad going. These dramatic increases more recently are a result of rights holders and broadcaster understanding the value of sport for their customers.

Sponsorships

Global franchises, led by Manchester United, have started to localise sponsorship agreements – significantly increasing revenue opportunities. The brand strength of teams that have built up their social media index so successfully enables rights to be replicated in any territory with no need to include ticketing, hospitality and branding rights true of more traditional (or outdated!) sponsorships. This is a recent development and one that recognises the value of engaged fans across the world.

Subscriptions

I believe that clubs will soon focus more on fan subscription models outside of their home territory. Annual fees in return for “behind the scenes” content, insider news, discounts on merchandise, signed memorabilia etc. Barcelona FC have over 300m fans on their various networks with 222,980 paying members. That is less than 0.1% – there is huge opportunity to grow.

Loyalty and a new class of affiliation

Loyalty platforms have had success all over the world from Nectar Card (19m UK users) to the Starbucks app. Sports teams have uniquely loyal customer bases and I think that the larger teams could secure a new type of affiliation that goes beyond sponsorship.

Working in the same way as a Nectar card, affiliated businesses would reward sports fans for their custom. These points are then redeemed with the club (tickets, merchandise, experiences) and the businesses pays the club a small percentage of the revenue received through the fan.

Schemes like these benefit all those associated with it and the value exchange between the rights holder, fan and affiliated business could allow clubs to take a share of unrelated transactions.

With investment in time and marketing there are plenty more options for clubs to create fan zones, live screenings and subscription models to monetise fans not local to the club. With the strength of a fan’s engagement with their chosen club, I believe the recent rise of sponsorship and media rights is only the beginning of club’s developing a global commercial brand.