Nottinghamshire to Play HOME Matches at DERBY

The Erosion of Membership CASE IN POINT

Just when you thought it was all quiet on the western front AKA The Hundred B*ll*cks competition, a Nottsviewer finds this, calling, rightly, for the CEO's head for not informing the membership, or even concealing it from us...

Will the club comment?


Source - Somerset Board Grockles.com comment by chunkyinargyll

Derbyshire CEO interviewed during match against Middlesex emphasised 'mums and kids' again (so presumably they must all be single mums. Single men drinking beer not the target audience (will they be putting up 'Keep out' signs!!!) 
Also mentioned- preliminary discussions about the possibility of Nottinghamshire playing some home games at Derby, as Trent Bridge will be requisitioned (my word, not his) for 6 weeks, so Notts fans will have to travel to another city for home games. 

Apparently the current membership / cricket followers/ supporters are officially described as "the grey market".


The Erosion of Membership

02/02/2018

There's little chance that the numerical level of Nottinghamshire's membership declining over a half-decade period whilst there remains a prospect of Ashes tickets somewhere in the future, but it can be argued that the reasons for being a member, of the most fabulously adorned of counties, is (declining).

Last month, every county urged the general public to express their interest in tickets for the World Cup 2019, some of which will take place at Trent Bridge, hence the wrecking ball attack on the aesthetics of the Radcliffe Road stand, to accommodate Indian TV (since the decision to expand media facilities at TB, TV channels covering cricket in India have consolidated and are now only two-thirds their original in number) -  but will Membership guarantee you the tickets to watch WC games at Trent Bridge?

The wrecking ball hasn't stopped at the Radcliffe Road; fixtures are been plundered, compressed and sidelined to make way for the idea that the T20 Blast competition must be seen to be in need of a revamp with the looming City (but now regional not city) Franchise  juggernaut arriving in 2020 - compressing the group games into the beginning of the summer holidays, when families go to places involving sea, sun and sand, not sixes, scorecards and Sweet Caroline.When successful, your side goes to play the finals now pushed back into the middle of September, when the night time temperatures are likely to be a few degrees lower potentially than in August, even in landlocked Birmingham. The powers that be must be trying to orchestrate a Blast decline, judging by their actions surely? The act of pushing Blast into the peak of summer, restricts the other competitions to the extremities, packing four day games into quick successions in April and then in September, but with weekends off, even though the erosion of the number of games continues.

Year on year the number of days Nottinghamshire cricket has been played on a Saturday or Sunday have become less at Trent Bridge, the Friday night date with T20 has now been left as a lingering memory - but when exactly do the administrators of the game imagine when working or learning spectators (existing supporters or future supporters) are going to be able to darken the doors of the stadium? Therefore there is less cricket for your buck, less opportunity to see what there is remaining for your buck (if you earn your buck) and make to matters worse, in 2020, much of the better players with all counties will be absent for a whole competition - the one day cup, the competition with games being played at lesser venues, giving a poorer product for your buck, and inflating members' carbon footprint in the process.

Should you be excited by the prospect (City/Regional Franchise) of a whole new squad of players, pulled from potentially every county or country to represent a team that hasn't been dreamed-up yet, that will play some of its matches at Trent Bridge; will your Membership buy you into those games? Or will there be a repeat of a countdown to ticket availability, like this year for non-members to buy Blast tickets expressing an interest to buy now before general sale in March. Perhaps I'm missing the point, not being the target audience, but it would be interesting to know how much interest has been actually expressed so far.

There used to be time, historically, when the Membership of the club had the power to hire or to fire (democratically) but these days power has be deferred, membership voting is largely impotent now, governance given to a few, non-representative officials who brandish their executive powers. That's why we are getting the Franchise competition, nothing democratically has led to its conception. These executives have shifted the sands of the club's priorities, time will tell if they have killed the ailing golden goose or transformed it into a turkey or a phoenix, to rise from the ashes. Dave