Warwickshire County Cricket Club has announced a sell out and record ticket sales for this year’s NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day in addition to increases in attendances at Birmingham Bears group games for a fourth consecutive season.
The club has boosted the capacity of Edgbaston by 850 seats for its bumper programme of major match days in 2017 by working with Arena Seating to provide a temporary stand. In turn, ticket and hospitality sales have reached 24,426 for Saturday’s marquee event, beating the previous best for NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day of 24,300 in 2015.
Saturday will be the ninth time that Finals Day has been staged at Edgbaston and this year is extra special thanks to the Bears qualification.
Neil Snowball
Neil Snowball, Chief Executive of Warwickshire CCC, said: “NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day is the biggest day in the domestic cricket calendar and we’re thrilled to secure record ticket sales for this year’s event.
“Saturday will be the ninth time that Finals Day has been staged at Edgbaston and this year is extra special thanks to Birmingham Bears qualifying for the third time in four seasons.”
In Birmingham Bears’ road to Finals Day, the club welcomed 61,678 members and supporters for the six 2017 home games*, with the average attendance up 18 per cent, year-on-year, to 10,280. The Bears also set a record attendance, for a T20 group game at Edgbaston, of 15,113 for the local derby against Worcestershire Rapids on 4 August.
The club has focused on attracting more families to games in 2017, with the number of children in attendance at Birmingham Bears home games rising by 27 per cent, to 10,180. In addition, the match day experience scores, a post-match survey completed by ticket buyers, has increased from 8.1 in 2016 to an all-time NatWest T20 Blast high at Edgbaston of 8.6 out of 10.
We’re thrilled to see further increases in our NatWest T20 Blast attendances and experience scores, particularly amongst families.
Neil Snowball
Neil Snowball added: “We’re thrilled to see further increases in our NatWest T20 Blast attendances and experience scores, particularly amongst families, with more parents able to take advantage of the free entry for under 16s.
“During the close season, the club recruited Emma Windsor as T20 Project Manager and her knowledge and expertise from working with the NFL and NBA has been paramount to this year’s off-field success, and reaching a younger audience.
“Encouraging more children to follow and play cricket is a key focus for the club and, in 2017, we developed our new Kids Zone area with giant inflatables and activities. We also worked closely with our partners Drayton Manor and Motorpoint to put cricket coaching and interactive photo opportunities around the stadium.”
NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day gets underway at Edgbaston at 11am on Saturday with Birmingham Bears taking on Glamorgan in the first semi-final, which is followed by Hampshire versus Notts Outlaws at 2.30pm. The winner will meet in the final at 6.45pm.
