'Canberra is a truly neutral venue'

Cricket Australia’s decision, announced this week, to stage next summer’s final of the KFC T20 Big Bash League at Manuka Oval in Canberra, which hosts neither regular international cricket nor a BBL franchise, has prompted much debate on social media networks. So we put a few of the most pertinent questions raised to CA’s Executive General Manager of Operations, Mike McKenna. His answers are below:

What were the main factors that influenced Cricket Australia’s decision to stage the final of BBL|04 at a neutral venue, Manuka Oval in Canberra?

The main factors were making sure we finished the season on a really high note, as befitting a competition that continues to enjoy great success and making sure the players were performing before a crowd that warranted their achievement in reaching the final.

As a result, we had to look at which grounds were available because there were a couple that weren’t due to prior bookings (eg Stadium Australia due to the Asian Cup football tournament), and the fact that a number of grounds also had international cricket matches in really close proximity to the date of the final, including the MCG, Blundstone Arena and the WACA (which will host the final two matches of the Carlton Mid ODI Series on January 30 and February 1). We also had to keep in mind, in terms of venue availability, that the ICC requires the stadia to be used for the World Cup be ‘locked down’ from that weekend beginning January 31.

Another factor which was a key one for us was the school holidays, which impacts on the availability of families to attend. In a number of Australian states the school holidays will have finished by the time the final is to be played, and with it being a mid-week game and only three days after the second semi-final – which means it’s very short notice for people to make arrangements – we were running the risk of playing the game at a large venue such as the MCG in front of a comparatively small crowd. School doesn’t go back in Canberra until the first week of February.

In our view, that would have represented a very disappointing end to the season for the players involved and the fans who have followed the entire competition. Having a one-third or half-full venue for the showpiece match of the BBL season was not appealing and once we made that decision there were other elements that came into play. For example, one of the reasons we didn’t schedule it for the Gabba was the increased likelihood of rain in late January.

Ultimately Canberra is a truly neutral venue for any teams that are good enough to qualify.

While it has been pointed out this is being conducted as a trial, is there a feeling that playing the final at a neutral venue could become the preferred option for subsequent seasons?

It’s more likely than not that we will revert back to the original model of the highest-ranked team in the final having the right to host the play-off for the next few seasons. But we’ve always reserved the right, from the very conception, of the Big Bash League to look at playing the grand final and perhaps even the semi-finals as well as the final over the course of a weekend at a fixed venue.

There are plenty of examples around the world, including competitions here in Australia, where the top match of the season is played at a fixed venue. Look at the AFL and NRL grand finals, the FA Cup, the Super Bowl. We will look at exploring that opportunity in the future but probably not in the immediate future.

Of course, when we are drawing up the schedule for the BBL, our first challenge is ‘what does the international season look like?’ and then we can work around that in regards to our own needs and wants. So we knew when the BBL had to be wrapped up by the end of January in order to accommodate the World Cup requirements, we were aware of the other international commitments of the summer, so there were a number of competing factors that meant scheduling for BBL|04 was always going to produce its challenges.

In addition, if trying to schedule the season so that the final fell on the preceding Australia Day weekend we would have needed to schedule quite a few extra double-headers in order to compact the regular season, and that in turn would have impacted our fans who prefer to attend and watch evening matches on TV.

Were the BBL’s media rights and commercial partners able to exert any influence on when and where the final would be played?

We certainly consulted with them and they were supportive. But at the end of the day it’s our call where and when we play the games. Certainly if they had a good reason to think differently we would have taken it into account but they didn’t have a problem with the decision that we reached.

Are you confident that by playing the final at Manuka Oval as an evening fixture on a Wednesday you can draw a suitably large attendance on the day as well as a large television audience around the nation?

We are very confident. The television audience is pretty much guaranteed because we have always had huge figures there for the final and I can’t see a reason why this would be any different.

As far as the crowd on the day is concerned, there have been really good examples of the Canberra public getting behind major sporting events including cricket – the Australian team has played in front of big crowds and the annual Prime Minister’s XI games are often sell-outs.

A benefit of naming the date and venue before the summer begins is that we can promote this event all season, whereas the previous model – certainly given the unique scheduling and venue availability constraints of the coming summer – would have given us three or four days at the most to prepare for such a big match. And regardless of whether it’s school holidays or not, that’s really not long enough for people to make their arrangements to go to a final.

So we’re very confident that the Canberra market is not only big enough but also hungry enough for the Big Bash that they’ll come along. And we’ve had a number of shows of interest from organisations within Canberra to host a Big Bash League expansion team based on their belief that there’s a huge demand for this kind of content in Canberra.

So is this an indication that if the BBL is to be expanded and more franchises added that Canberra might now be at the forefront of any such plans?

I think that a whole range of different circumstances would come into play if we were looking at expanding the League. This doesn’t give them an advantage in that respect.

Certainly, the Canberra market has always been of interest to us and that can only be enhanced if they pull another big crowd for the final. But adding another Big Bash team, in the context of expanding the competition, is certainly not on the agenda, and if it was this game would only be one of a very large number of factors that would play into it.