Despite appetite for cricket, stadiums remain empty for domestic CSA T20 Challenge

The SA20 final is two months away, but tickets are already sold out for the showpiece event set to take place at Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town on 25 January next year.

Yet, the CSA T20 Challenge, which is in its third week, has barely received any fanfare with stadiums across the country bare. It’s a stark contrast to what the same stadiums will look like from Boxing Day, when the SA20 kicks off this year.

Why is there such a vast difference in support for two cricket products in the same format?

The three-year-old SA20 is a franchise league with money poured into it from varied sources. Former Indian Premier League (IPL) COO Sundar Raman has a 20% share in SA20, for example, with all six franchises owned by IPL franchise owners. Broadcaster SuperSport also has a further 30% share in the tournament.

SA20 also has a hefty title sponsorship with betting company Betway. The CSA T20 Challenge has none of the above, so it doesn’t have the money to advertise its product in the same way.

So, despite Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen opening the batting for the Lions – the same pair who were the opening fulcrum of MI Cape Town’s title-winning side – crowds appear at stadiums only when the pair are in blue, and not the traditional yellow of the Highveld Lions.

The CSA T20 Challenge has no title sponsor, with Cricket South Africa doing the heavy lifting on its own in financing the product.

“CSA (Cricket South Africa) endeavours to work closely with affiliate members to promote the tournament,” CSA Chief Marketing Officer Wanele Mngomezulu told Daily Maverick.

“However, there are resource challenges, mainly budget and dedicated marketing teams to drive and manage local marketing programmes.”

Empty stadiums

While the near-capacity stadiums of the SA20 are not expected for the CSA T20 Challenge, crowds have been near non-existent for the duration of the tournament thus far.

At Newlands Cricket Stadium, for example, the average attendance for the first three matches of the ongoing tournament has been 528 people. The stadium reached its highest number of supporters on Sunday, when the men’s and women’s teams had a double-header and raked in 681 supporters.

For context, Newlands has a capacity of around 22,000, with every one of those seats and grass embankments expected to be filled in just over a month for the SA20.

This is despite Western Province winning four of the six matches they’ve played so far and looking set for a place in the semifinals.

Certain sections of the ground are closed on match days, with renovations under way. However, the sections of the ground that are open are not at capacity.

Obstacles

Newlands, Kingsmead Stadium in Durban, the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg and SuperSport Park in Centurion are all in the process of fixing their pylon lights in preparation for the Cricket World Cup in 2027, hosted by South Africa.

That means that no day-night matches can take place at those venues. Matches at the aforementioned venues, therefore, have to take place during the day, including weekday matches, which is another factor inhibiting the maximum number of supporters from entering stadiums.

But the fact that CSA decided to repair stadium lights during the CSA T20 Challenge window means that it doesn’t believe the gap between the current attendance and the maximum attendance is worth considering.

Another inhibiting element in the scheduling is that the tournament and the exam period overlap.

“The 25/26 T20 Challenge started at the end of October and is scheduled to end at the end of November,” Mngomezulu explained.

“The target market is mainly Gen Z, with a spillover to Millennials. Most of the GenZ fan base is targeted at schools, tertiary institutions … which are currently writing exams.”

Another factor is that more than a dozen national players are in India representing the country in the red-ball format, although a few, including Kyle Verreynne and Lungi Ngidi, played a few matches for their domestic sides.

The SA “A” side is also touring India with potential young crowd-pullers playing white-ball cricket in the subcontinent.

Appetite for cricket

According to CSA, budget constraints at unions are the major limiting factor in advertising the CSA T20 Challenge more broadly.

“The tournament has been promoted nationally across various Supersport channels, radio stations, outdoor advertising and various social media channels, including paid adverts,” Mngomezulu said. “The challenge remains with local marketing and constrained budgets.”

This is echoed by Western Province Cricket Association CEO Corrie van Zyl.

“In terms of activations, it’s really also very much budget dependent,” Van Zyl said to Daily Maverick.

“We don’t have the type of budget that the SA20 would have, which has really elevated the match-day experience for fans.

“It is a challenge from a budget perspective. It’s also important that we have a domestic tournament sponsor for the CSA T20 Challenge that can also assist in activations on match day.

“It really needs to be a collective effort in order for us to galvanise the same sort of support that SA20 is getting.”

Western Province has had to work around its financial limitations to advertise its matches in “value-in-kind” partnerships with Heart FM (radio station) and Tractors (billboards).

“The SA20 has shown me that the people are there,” Van Zyl said. “Cricket is still loved by the community.

“It’s just a question of, how do you get them there? How do you entertain them when they are there? Because SA20 has set a [high] bar.”

The CSA T20 Challenge has also been thrilling, with two matches in the past week going all the way to a Super Over (with one having a second Super Over after two deadlocks).

The SA20 has proven three times over that there is an appetite to watch cricket. CSA and the unions just need to find a way to make their product more visible, and guide the fans to stadiums. DM