Bad timing blamed

Officials say small crowd not due to lack of interest

BAD timing rather than lack of interest is being blamed for the Hurricanes low crowd for their opening game of the Big Bash League season.

Just 11,010 turned up to Blundstone Arena on Thursday night to watch the home team defeated by the Melbourne Renegades, the smallest crowd in recent memory.

Last year, the venue was at 88 per cent capacity across the four home games, but it was only about 60 per cent full for the clash with the Renegades.

Cricket Tasmanian chief executive Nick Cummins said circumstances conspired against the season opener.

“We knew we were up against with the timing of the game, not being a weekend, last day of school, and so close to Christmas,” Mr Cummins said.

“The combination of those things was always a risk we wouldn’t get as many as we were hoping, but ticket sales for our remaining four games remain strong.

“We think it is timing rather than an interest issue.”

While the attendance was poor, the television ratings were through the roof.

On average 1.17 million viewers tuned in for the game, with the TV audience peaking at 1.4 million.

Mr Cummins said the next game, the first in Launceston, was already 80 per cent sold out and the remaining three games in Hobart were also selling strongly.

“There is nothing to suggest lack of interest,” he said.

“From a TV perspective, we are up on last year.

“We peaked at 1.4 million which is far and away the biggest TV ratings of any club or sporting event played in this state. There are a lot of positive indicators.”