PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – So far ticket sales and crowd attendance for the NAGICO Super50 tournament has been “below par” but the organisers expect that business will pick up as the competition progresses.
The Super50 bowled off on Thursday at Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain and continues with matches almost every day until the final next Saturday (February 15).Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) treasurer Sukesh Maniam said on Saturday the Board was expecting bigger crowds than what turned up over the first two days of the competition on Thursday and Friday but was confident that more fans would have come out Sunday for Trinidad and Tobago’s opening match against Barbados the Oval from 14:00hrs.
“We were expecting bigger crowds but so far it just did not materialise. We knew we would have been competing with various Carnival fetes but so far it was below par.
“We have been getting a little less than 500 in attendance but we expected that number to more than double yesterday,” said Maniam.
Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board’s (TTCB) Marketing, Business Development and Special Events Committee Baldath Mahabir said that while they did not expect “fantastic crowds” in the early part of the tournament, they are expecting a bigger turn out starting yesterday.
Asked about the marketing of the matches, Mahabir explained that the WICB only did “standard marketing” on the newspapers on the West Indies Cricket Board website on the TTCB website as well as the sponsors’ website.
“Nothing extraordinary. We really expected the crowds to ramp up from the first night T&T play. It is a long tournament and we expect people will get warm to the tournament as it progresses,” Mahabir explained. “The crowds could have been bigger.”
Asked if he thought the advertising for the tournament was sufficient Mahabir said: “You could never over-market (an event). We expected it to start slow and get bigger as we go along.”
Maniam noted that tickets will be on sale on match days in order to minimise the instances of scalping and counterfeiting.
Tickets cost $30 for the preliminary round matches, $40 for the semi-finals and $50 for the final. (Trinidad Express)