Kit Harris has a plan to improve County Championship attendances.
It went even better than promised. Back in February, the Hundred fetched a handsome price, and each county can expect a windfall of at least £20m. But while watching the banknotes fall, we should not forget what The Hundred, money aside, was about: it was supposed to be a gateway to the county game. A first step for a new audience on the road to county cricket.
Everybody hopes that the counties, as well as a massive financial boost, will see growth in support. And few would deny that, in strictly cricketing terms, the County Championship is still the pinnacle of the domestic game.
In the January edition of this blog, six counties were identified as the ECB’s favourites: they have (or soon will) a Hundred franchise, a top-tier women’s team, and an annual bonanza from hosting Tests. Since The Hundred was introduced, all have reversed a decline in Championship attendance.
Another six counties might be considered the poor relations. No Test matches for them, no professional women’s team, and no Hundred franchise, though they will benefit from the windfall. These are the grounds where attendance is low, and – apart from an 11% increase at Derby from 2023 to 2024 – falling. But the new-found millions give them a chance to turn things around.
The other six counties are a mixed bag. Some have arrested declining Championship gates, but actual growth is barely discernible. Essex’s attendances are down by two-thirds over ten years, Kent’s by one-third.
But Essex and Kent are still pulling their weight according to a subtler measure: the local audience. Taking total attendances as a percentage of the population within five miles of a county’s headquarters, they are among only four to pass 10%. And they have something else in common: they lack league football clubs. With town football teams at levels six to ten of the pyramid, Taunton, Canterbury, Chelmsford and Worcester are undeniably cricket towns. Chester-le-Street is borderline, being a touch over ten miles from Sunderland. Every other county has a footballing rival within five miles.
Much of the audience created by The Hundred is young people. And for them, the on-the-day price of a Championship ticket can vary considerably.
This table shows entry prices advertised on the counties’ websites for day one of their first Championship game of 2025. All have children’s rates (highlighted in green) and adults’ rates (buff); some have intermediate “young adult” rates (blue). The cheapest admission, for each age, is shown in green, the most expensive in red.
The youngest age at which a county decides you’re no longer a child is 14, when Sussex double their price (they double it again at 18). The oldest junior-age concessions are at Essex, Warwickshire and Yorkshire, who don’t charge the full price until you turn 26.
Child admission varies from nothing (Derbyshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire) to £7 (Gloucestershire and Kent). Along with Nottinghamshire, Gloucestershire also have the most expensive adult ticket, at £23, though they regard a child as a child until they’re legally an adult. Eleven counties up the price before a spectator reaches 18.
All told, Warwickshire offer the cheapest Championship cricket for young people: an average of £3.33 a day from the ages of 11 to 25. Middlesex are the most expensive, at £15.
County balance sheets are complex beasts, and it would be facile to draw too sharp a comparison between Championship ticket prices and attendances. But if proper, red-ball cricket is to attract The Hundred’s new audience, if teenagers are a tiny fraction of Championship income, and now that counties have their £20m windfall – is it time to open the gates for free? Three counties can manage it. Why not the others?
Kit Harris is Assistant Editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
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