GLAMMY

[blue lewj]

Re: GLAMMY

In comparison the County Championship games are watched by about 50 people a day with backpacks and flasks with takings at the bar and food stalls being minimal.

Where do you think the ECB think their marketing budget is better spent?

[the other bob wilson]

Re: GLAMMY

Isn't that the same with anything though?
Surely the large crowds show there is appetite for it though.

Does the player's background matter if they're serving up entertainment? Keeping in mind the make up of the City squad this season.

It didn't seem to matter to most of those yesterday. I do agree that they will drop off if the product is bad though. As with anything really.

Regarding City, you look back beyond the last decade and there’s always been a Welsh nucleus (often a large one) in the team. City’s first team may not have a Welsh identity these days (maybe that’s why I don’t feel as close a connection to the club now), but it’s had one for the huge majority of its existence. Same with Glamorgan, the number of Welsh players may have dropped, but they’re still there and they are definitely a Welsh team.

What is The Welsh Fire meant to be? A side representing Wales of just a franchise? The make up of the team currently suggests the latter and, if that’s the case, they may as well rebrand the team as South West Fire and start alternating home games with Bristol ( a large potential audience is being ignored there) and Taunton - after all, Gloucestershire and Somerset at least have some representation in the team.

I agree about the T20 Blast which the marketing and media people at the ECB seem to have grown tired of and thrown away like a discarded toy. You only need to look at other parts of the world to see how popular it is and yet the money men and women prefer a new competition which offers a little more than three overs a side less and a few gimmicks thrown in - give it a couple of years and they’ll be agitating for something else (the One maybe) and the Hundred will be seen as old hat.

[blue lewj]

Re: GLAMMY

Regarding City, you look back beyond the last decade and there’s always been a Welsh nucleus (often a large one) in the team. City’s first team may not have a Welsh identity these days (maybe that’s why I don’t feel as close a connection to the club now), but it’s had one for the huge majority of its existence. Same with Glamorgan, the number of Welsh players may have dropped, but they’re still there and they are definitely a Welsh team.

What is The Welsh Fire meant to be? A side representing Wales of just a franchise? The make up of the team currently suggests the latter and, if that’s the case, they may as well rebrand the team as South West Fire and start alternating home games with Bristol ( a large potential audience is being ignored there) and Taunton - after all, Gloucestershire and Somerset at least have some representation in the team.

I agree about the T20 Blast which the marketing and media people at the ECB seem to have grown tired of and thrown away like a discarded toy. You only need to look at other parts of the world to see how popular it is and yet the money men and women prefer a new competition which offers a little more than three overs a side less and a few gimmicks thrown in - give it a couple of years and they’ll be agitating for something else (the One maybe) and the Hundred will be seen as old hat.

We're talking modern day though. I'm not sure the modern sports fan cares too much where the players are from. Obviously nice if they're local products and you have that connection but the requirement for many is if they are any good. Many will take performance over shoe-horning Welsh lads in for the sake of it. Do Man City fans care they have very few Mancunians in the team while winning the Premier League? I very much doubt it.

What is any new team meant to be really other than have a name representing the place it is from and actually playing there? All of the things you accuse the Welsh Fire of could be aimed at say Cardiff Devils. Most teams have to start somewhere. Again, it is a game where a glut of Welsh talent isn't at its disposal, at least if they have any aim to be competitive.

I think that the ECB could have saved money by not starting from scratch and keeping all the counties happy. They haven't though and whether we like it or not people seem to like it in record figures. Crowds drop off at City if we are playing rubbish as they do at virtually every sports team regardless of history. They could potentially go higher if Welsh Fire produce a successful team too. It isn't unique to the Hundred.

I enjoy watching it but have tried to take it on face value rather than get caught up in where the players are from etc.
Some of the performances have been shocking though. Yesterday, having been in some kind of control, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

[blue lewj]

Re: GLAMMY

Not sure if it is purely fixture coincidence but Welsh Fire are playing Birmingham Phoenix the evening of our game with Birmingham City.

[Pearcey3]

Re: GLAMMY

For what it is worth I think the money spent on marketing this competition could have achieved the same for T20 blast. All while not alienating most of the Counties involved.

..which is why a lot of us are so critical because this competition was not necessary. Just promote and fund T20 properly and with some BBC coverage as well you would see T20 rise significantly.

[blue lewj]

Re: GLAMMY

..which is why a lot of us are so critical because this competition was not necessary. Just promote and fund T20 properly and with some BBC coverage as well you would see T20 rise significantly.

I'm not sure it was needed. I totally agree on the T20 point too. I don't think there was much wrong with it and it will certainly suffer due to the Hundred becoming a thing.

The ECB will simply see record crowds, television viewing figures probably following the same trend and think that it was the correct decision.

People obviously have the choice to watch or not but I think it is here to stay and interest is definitely there and something to be built on, whether that be from traditional cricket fans or newcomers.

[The Bloop]

Re: GLAMMY

As has been said The Hundred just isn't needed.
It was only put forward as a tournament because the BBC didn't have any live cricket to broadcast and wanted something of their own. Somehow it's been timetabled at the same time as the 50 over competition at a time when England's performances in 50 over games have taken a bit of a downturn.
If the ECB want a successful national side then they should invest more in those formats at county level.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: GLAMMY

We're talking modern day though. I'm not sure the modern sports fan cares too much where the players are from. Obviously nice if they're local products and you have that connection but the requirement for many is if they are any good. Many will take performance over shoe-horning Welsh lads in for the sake of it. Do Man City fans care they have very few Mancunians in the team while winning the Premier League? I very much doubt it.

What is any new team meant to be really other than have a name representing the place it is from and actually playing there? All of the things you accuse the Welsh Fire of could be aimed at say Cardiff Devils. Most teams have to start somewhere. Again, it is a game where a glut of Welsh talent isn't at its disposal, at least if they have any aim to be competitive.

I think that the ECB could have saved money by not starting from scratch and keeping all the counties happy. They haven't though and whether we like it or not people seem to like it in record figures. Crowds drop off at City if we are playing rubbish as they do at virtually every sports team regardless of history. They could potentially go higher if Welsh Fire produce a successful team too. It isn't unique to the Hundred.

I enjoy watching it but have tried to take it on face value rather than get caught up in where the players are from etc.
Some of the performances have been shocking though. Yesterday, having been in some kind of control, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Welsh Fire have a mostly domestic (English) batting line up full of players who, Pope apart, are county performers currently. Now, if I was a marketing man, I’d have tried to get the team to sign Welsh born Phil Salt who is currently closer to the England one day teams than the likes of Clarke, Duckett, Banton and Hain, so you’d be getting a good player who could be marketed as the Welsh face of the team representing the country - increasingly, people will notice the lack of Welshmen and women in the squads, especially if results stay as poor as they have been for a season and more.

I can’t comment on the women yet, but the men’s side looks a poorly put together cricket team to me - granted, they’ve been unlucky to lose Bairstow.

[blue lewj]

Re: GLAMMY

Welsh Fire have a mostly domestic (English) batting line up full of players who, Pope apart, are county performers currently. Now, if I was a marketing man, I’d have tried to get the team to sign Welsh born Phil Salt who is currently closer to the England one day teams than the likes of Clarke, Duckett, Banton and Hain, so you’d be getting a good player who could be marketed as the Welsh face of the team representing the country - increasingly, people will notice the lack of Welshmen and women in the squads, especially if results stay as poor as they have been for a season and more.

I can’t comment on the women yet, but the men’s side looks a poorly put together cricket team to me - granted, they’ve been unlucky to lose Bairstow.

I understand where you're coming from totally but the team have just had the largest domestic cricket crowd in Wales ever.

Marketing clearly isn't a problem at the moment. As you have rightly pointed out too, this crowd is off the back of some very poor performances.

If the performances stay bad then people will simply not go to games. I'm not sure they'll be thinking "Right, how many Welsh players have we got before I consider still going to games or not". I just don't think it is factored in as much as many would like to think it is in any sport these days.

[blue lewj]

Re: GLAMMY

As has been said The Hundred just isn't needed.
It was only put forward as a tournament because the BBC didn't have any live cricket to broadcast and wanted something of their own. Somehow it's been timetabled at the same time as the 50 over competition at a time when England's performances in 50 over games have taken a bit of a downturn.
If the ECB want a successful national side then they should invest more in those formats at county level.

I'm not sure it was needed. There is certainly interest though and interest that surpasses anything crowd wise seen before in Wales.

If something can be set up and surpass Glamorgan crowd figures in two years then it says more about what was not being done or being done incorrectly before than anything groundbreaking The Hundred are doing.

It shows though that people will turn up in Wales in numbers if it is marketed properly and they feel they're getting entertainment for their money.
I don't think people will watch a rubbish team though, Welsh or otherwise.

[The Bloop]

Re: GLAMMY

I'm not sure it was needed. There is certainly interest though and interest that surpasses anything crowd wise seen before in Wales.

If something can be set up and surpass Glamorgan crowd figures in two years then it says more about what was not being done or being done incorrectly before than anything groundbreaking The Hundred are doing.

It shows though that people will turn up in Wales in numbers if it is marketed properly and they feel they're getting entertainment for their money.
I don't think people will watch a rubbish team though, Welsh or otherwise.

It's marketed on the BBC and people watch the BBC. It's timetabled on purpose to coincide with school holidays.
The ECB should not sell exclusive broadcast rights for their competitions, but ensure that some matches in each competition (including finals) are broadcast free to air.

[blue lewj]

Re: GLAMMY

It's marketed on the BBC and people watch the BBC. It's timetabled on purpose to coincide with school holidays.
The ECB should not sell exclusive broadcast rights for their competitions, but ensure that some matches in each competition (including finals) are broadcast free to air.

I agree.

There has to be some thinking behind why the ECB sought to start from scratch with a totally new concept than run with the existing competition and counties. Not sure what the thinking is behind it but it surely would have cost them more to market these new teams and start a concept from scratch than say pump money into the T20. You would have thought so anyway. Unless the BBC had input and demanded a fresh new idea? Who knows.

[blue lewj]

Re: GLAMMY

Harry Kane on co-commentary on tonight's game.

Well popped in the pod for a few balls in his London Spirit shirt.

[Kind of Blue]

Re: GLAMMY

It’ll be around for a while I’m sure, the ECB can’t afford for it to fail so even if there are signs of it faltering I’m sure more money will be found to pump into it.

If the marketing and budget for all the “extracurricular” razzmatazz set aside for this, along with peak calendar slots, terrestrial telly exposure and the way the beeb have been pushing this, was given to the blast (perhaps with a refreshed name and image) I think you would have seen fairly similar results. The cricket and the standard clearly isn’t the whole draw to be fair, as the coverage I’ve seen likes to point out along with the games I’ve been able to watch and follow (primarily WF games, who to be fair have been pretty crap). Having the money to push all that “extra” stuff really helps.

I’m not a massive watcher of the short (and shorter) stuff outside of Glammy games, world cups (seldom bother with international series now) and some Big Bash in the winter when it feels a bit of a novelty after our summer. So the competition isn’t aimed at me, which is fine. Be nice to have a half decent side representing Wales in some way though!

[Father Dougal]

Re: GLAMMY

I do find the history argument interesting.

Everything had no history once.......

This thread is called glammy but do youngsters pay any attention to glammy now? There were thousands of kids at the Welsh fire game yesterday. They seemed to enjoy it anyway. Do they follow glamorgan also?

I just think we have to remember was the biggest welsh domestic crowd of all time yesterday. Glamorgan have never and will never have a crowd as big. Absolutely fine to say how bad and sad that is but to say nobody has any interest in the 100 is just nonsense sorry.