As the ECB launches a belated new media drive this spring to reach out to existing and new fans, up to 15 million regular followers of the County Championship – never mind the sport’s sexier new forms and competitions – are out there waiting to be tapped, according to Worcestershire Cricket Club chief executive Mark Newton.
“The County Championship is well-loved – we know this from interest through the media and on the web,” Newton told BritSport Weekly.
“Footfall at the grounds is nowhere near this level of course. We have adapted the product to get as many people through the gates as possible, but County Championship cricket will not move forward as quickly as other competitions because we can only play when most people are working.”
If Newton’s figures are correct, County Championship cricket is in the same position as so many other sports, properties and entire industries looking at their vast internet audiences, but scratching their heads over the multi-, multi-million-dollar question of how to monetise it.
Newton said he believed electronic and written press coverage of cricket is now more geared towards the international game than it was in the past. But he said the legions of County Championship fans were still getting access to the competition through local newspapers and radio, and the internet. He said the counties were not yet feeling the pinch of local newspaper closures that are happening across the country. However this can only be a matter of time, placing even more emphasis on how online coverage develops.
Although the ECB is now taking a lead on promoting the international game on the internet, online County Championship coverage is left up to the counties, according to Newton. Live online scoreboards have proved particularly popular on Worcestershire’s homepage.
However an ‘internet revolution’ in County Championship coverage might bypass a large chunk of its current core fanbase – the retired population who now make up the majority of attendees at County Championship matches. Although an unusual target demographic in the modern sports industry, as Newton points out, the size of this population is increasing.
Newton welcomes the success and popularity of the shortened forms of cricket and the new competitions which, as he says, now dominate the cricket world. As a county, he says the County Championship cannot now be divorced – as a standalone ‘product’ – from its wider business, which includes participation in the Twenty20 Cup and the Pro40 league. Primarily, he says, the County Championship teams’ role is to develop players to play international test cricket, which brings in the television revenues which feed back around £1.7 million per year to Worcestershire and the other counties.
