International Cricket Council (ICC) have not yet disclosed the official attendance for India’s match against Ireland in New York on Wednesday. But by a safe estimate, there were a little over 20,000 fans in attendance at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium. The reason for the subdued atmosphere and turnout, despite a sizeable Indian community in New York and nearby New Jersey, has been attributed to poor marketing efforts and largely due to the expensive ticket prices.
While the grand stands were filled for the match against Ireland, the premium North and South stands, with prices around $1,000, didn’t find enough takers. It didn’t make for a pleasing broadcast experience either with many vacant seats around the sight screen at both ends.
To make it an even more displeasing experience for those that did show up, fans complained about mediocre arrangements and poor facilities for the hefty price paid.
Met Jagan Vinyagam, 48, originally from Chennai but living in NJ for last 20 years. Paid $350 for a "premium" ticket, only to be randomly assigned to last row, top of the stadium, section 247. He feels like he got scammed. "there was no transparency in the ticket buying process." pic.twitter.com/UGC1zYRmgn
— Peter Della Penna (@PeterDellaPenna) June 5, 2024
The task gets tougher for ICC, the local organisers and the marketing teams. With marquee India vs Pakistan fixture on Sunday (9 June), the ask gets bigger and there is serious need to up the game.
As of 6 June, the match of such magnitude is not yet sold out and there are plenty of Diamond Club ($10,000), Corner Clubs ($2,750) and Premium Club Lounge ($2,500) seats still available. These are the same premium seats which had few takers for the India-Ireland match, where the prices were considerably lower. The ticket prices for the India-Ireland fixture in these categories were: Diamond Club ($7,500), Corner Clubs ($950) and Premium Club Lounge ($900).
Ahead of the India-Pakistan showdown, ICC released more General Admission tickets to fill up the stadium. Something that wasn’t necessary when 90,000 and 1,00,000 fans filled up the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad respectively for their last two meetings.
This is a map of the tickets available for India v Pakistan, which is less than four days away. It's going to be the same story for one of the biggest fixtures in all of sport. pic.twitter.com/pY24Kc9IYz
— Daniel Smith (@DannyAdelante) June 5, 2024
For India’s third and final game in New York, against co-hosts USA, ICC will largely revert to the same ticket prices as that for the Ireland match.
Away from the exorbitant ticket prices and the low turnout, the focus has seemingly been on the TV audience. Some of the matches are starting as early as 10.30 AM local time to suit the prime time slot in the Indian sub-continent.
Johnny Grave, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) CEO, said the T20 World Cup schedule was made keeping Indian time zone in mind .
“I think everyone accepts that the vast majority of revenues for all ICC events comes from one market,” Grave said. “Therefore it is really important that we find a balance between starting matches at prime time in India and for home fans. We have half the matches early for Star Sports and then we have gone as late as possible so they will start early in the morning in India, so they should still get a decent viewership.”
“We as hosts can focus on the local fans attending the evening games and the 10:30 morning games will allow us to get school kids to watch some World Cup cricket for free.”
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