An unattractive format have kept crowds away from the Georgie Pie Super Smash
THE provincial Twenty20 cricket competition wraps up with the grand final tomorrow in Hamilton.
Who will hold home advantage? Well, maybe no one. That final could be between Auckland and Wellington, on neutral territory, in front of few people. Sadly this has become the norm.
Twelve of 33 games in the juvenilely named Georgie Pie Super Smash have been played at Seddon Park.
Just over half the games in the entire competition have featured a home side.
All teams with the exception of Northern Districts (who had four), played only three out of their 10 matches at home.
New Zealand Cricket may be disappointed, but it can't feign surprise that no one has turned up to the grounds.
The Plunket Shield four-day competition will always hold the prestige, but Twenty20 is supposed to be the format to keep the ticket box busy.
It's well documented, TV now holds power when it comes to scheduling sport, but this season's format surely must be doing damage to the domestic game.
It was spun as an opportunity to have six weekend "festivals of cricket" with all six teams, in one location playing five games over a weekend.
But aside from the obvious lack of desire for home crowds to watch two teams they have no connection with, asking fans to turn up to 17 hours of cricket over three days is exactly what Twenty20 was created not to do. People no longer had time to spend even one day at the cricket, so went the narrative.
Twenty20 packed the game into three hours, ramped up the excitement and was meant to bring the crowds back. And it did for a while.
Earlier versions of the cup were held largely over the holiday period. The sun shone, people were off work and school, and thousands flocked to smaller grounds such as Pukekura Park in New Plymouth and Bay Oval at Mt Maunganui.
Last year, Sky TV took the odd game and put it in a huge stadium on damp and cold November nights so it could fill primetime TV slots when domestic rugby finished. This year, it's gone further.
The experiment has failed for New Zealand Cricket at least and it's not clear how TV ratings have held up.
The teams, partly due to the New Zealand A tour, have been deprived of household names yet the matches haven't been terrible.
But watching sixes fly into the empty seats of the country's two biggest stadiums (which have tailor-made cricket venues only kilometres away) and mascots walking around trying to gee-up empty stands has been bizarre.
Students are busy with exams and others are flat out at work or planning their summer holiday.
Even in acknowledging TV as the priority, the sparse physical audience actually detracts from the broadcast.
Tellingly, it appears that when the cameras disappeared the crowds grew.
Not having floodlighting meant South Island sides Canterbury and Otago had their three home games at the Hagley and University ovals.
These were not televised "epic festivals of T20 matches" but stand-alone matches featuring the home team at appropriately-sized grounds.
By all accounts, the Canterbury Kings drew the best crowds of the season.
Spare a thought, too, for New Plymouth, whose fans are fortunate to have one of the most attended venues and had proven they would turn up.
Ratepayers and community trusts forked out half-a-million dollars for practice nets following a threat to have games pulled, only to completely miss out on Twenty20 this season.
Summer is officially only six days old, but the most popular version of the game is finished.
The domestic game has a chance to build off the World Cup in a couple of months and a Black Caps side on the verge of a golden era.
But everything needs to be done to fuel the fire, not smother it.
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While Central Districts again narrowly avoided the wooden spoon, this season was a marked improvement on a winless 2013.
Led by Kruger van Wyk, the underwhelming roster knocked over more talented line-ups on the way to three wins, including a clinical victory over title hopefuls Auckland. With a stronger middle order, CD could have challenged for a play-off spot.
Also encouraging was the bowling attack, which turned out to be the competition's most exciting.
Before leaving for the NZ A tour, speedster Adam Milne troubled batsmen with every ball, while Seth Rance's deadly accuracy and Ben Wheeler's talent kept the side in games all season.
Signing a marque hitter next season will move the Stags up another rung at least.