#smashemsixers: A report on the matchday presentation of Sydney Sixers Women’s Big Bash League games.

Abstract

Cricket Australia has recently launched #WATCHME, a powerful new marketing campaign created to promote the Australian Women's Cricket Team and the Rebel Women's Big Bash League (hereafter WBBL). This report provides an important empirical snapshot and analysis of Australian sports fans’ current satisfaction levels and matchday experiences while watching Sydney Sixers WBBL matches. The research was undertaken for the Sixers with the purpose of examining gendered differences in motivations for attendance, consumption practices, and the overall value placed on women’s cricket. A review of academic literature and similar research studies/reports provides the theoretical and conceptual frameworks to evaluate the data generated by the current study. The research methods employed for this study included participant observation of four WBBL matches and an online survey of 308 respondents. The key findings from the qualitative observational data revealed that: There were differences in the presentation of WBBL games compared to those of the BBL. These differences included food and beverage options, attitudes of stadium staff, and on field-engagement activities for fans. There were also notable differences in the atmosphere of the WBBL games compared to the BBL. The WBBL was observed to be more family friendly and less focused on established rivalries and competitiveness. The key findings from the survey data revealed that: Male fans value women’s sport less than female fans. This finding was indicated by the difference in ticket price valuation of WBBL games by male. Suburban and smaller venues appeal more to female fans than male fans. Female fans were more likely to prefer family zones, crowd entertainment and supporter giveaways than male fans. The report offers six recommendations aimed to improve the overall fan experience of Sydney Sixers WBBL matchdays. These recommendations included that there should be no differences in the presentation of women’s cricket matches compared to their BBL equivalents, and also, that the Sydney Sixers make wider use of new media channels to engage with female fans. Further, this report recommends that a fee be introduced for WBBL games that should be on par with the BBL to offer further legitimacy and commercial value to the women’s game.