IPL, BBL among the top ten most-watched leagues in the world

The Big Bash League (BBL), which is in its fifth edition, has now become one of the top 10 most attended sports leagues in the world. This is another example of the Big Bash League’s fast emerging success.

This news comes just after a week when a record 80,883 crowd turned up to the MCG for the Melbourne derby tie between the Stars and Renegades.

BBL averaged 28,279 attendance before Sunday’s two games which has propelled the league to ninth position in the list of the world’s most attended sports leagues. This makes it more popular than the Japan’s professional baseball league (28,248) and Indian Super League football (26,376).

It must be noted that BBL has a relatively smaller sample size in comparison to other leagues which are in the Top ten. There were only 24 games played before Sunday’s two matches between Hobart and Perth, and Sydney Sixers and Brisbane with a total attendance of nearly 700,000.

In contrast, NFL, the world’s biggest league, attracted in excess of 17 million fans to its stadiums in the 2015 regular season. Major League Baseball comes in seventh with an average of 30,517 but with teams playing 162 games a season had a total attendance of more than 73 million.

“That’s flattering, given that the competition is only five years’ old, to be in the company of some of those really established sports leagues,” Big Bash manager Anthony Everard said on Sunday. “Having said that it’s obviously not really our focus. Our focus is on our own backyard and making sure we continue to appeal to kids and families. That is as satisfying to us as perhaps some of those big numbers on a global scale.”

The massive crowd at the MCG has obviously improved the Big Bash figures.

“I think that number has been a real eye-opener for us. If I reflect on the first few years of the Big Bash we were astounded by mid-20,000s and I think we had 30,000 at the Gabba one night. Those were considered at the time to be fantastic numbers,” Everard said.

“Here we are eight or 10 days after that MCG game and we’re still trying to get our heads around 80,00 fans at a Big Bash game. It gives us a real cause to reconsider where the opportunities are for the BBL and the growth available not just for Melbourne but all the other markets as well.

“We’ve stated that at the end of the season we’re going to consider our options. I guess we sort of think of it as growth rather than expansion and it can take many different forms. It could potentially be more games … we’ve already gone on the record to say we’re not considering introducing new teams at the moment. We haven’t put a time-frame on that. We’re not going to get caught up in its success this year and make too many knee-jerk reactions.”

Top 10 most watched sports leagues (average crowds, 2015/16)

1.NFL 68,278

2. German Bundesliga 43,331

3. US College Football Division I FBL 43,288

4. English Premier League 36,464

5. AFL 33,428

6. Indian Premier League 31,750*

7. Major League Baseball 30,517

8. La Liga 28,498

9. Big Bash League 28,279

10. Nippon Professional Baseball 28,248

* IPL figures are from 2014 tournament when first 20 games were played in the UAE and are unofficial.