ECB consider ‘de-coupling’ Women’s Hundred in bid for standalone sell-outs to follow trend in other UK women’s sports.
ECB consider ‘de-coupling’ Women’s Hundred in bid for standalone sell-outs.
While the ECB considers “de-coupling” some of the tournament’s doubleheaders, its chief executive, Richard Gould, has set a goal to sell out a women’s match in the Hundred.
According to the Hundred’s current double-header plan, midweek women’s matches are played during business hours, and tickets are good for both games on the same day. Although there are no plans to extend the Hundred’s 27-day span, starting in 2026, some doubleheaders might be divided into two distinct days in order to maximise ticket sales revenue.
In 2021, Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals played a stand-alone women’s match to kick off The Hundred. The men’s match was played the next evening. Every matchday this season will feature a women’s match followed by the same men’s match at the same location, as it has been using a double-header model ever since.
“The double-headers have been working well,” Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo. “At some point, we would like to try and find a way that we can have standalone fixtures, perhaps, for men and women. Getting to a capacity crowd for a women’s Hundred fixture at some point in the next couple of years has to be a target for us.
“The window is fixed, a 27-day, exclusive window… Within that window, if you get to the point where you can de-couple games, it’s really demonstrating the commercial growth of the women’s game, into which we’re investing a huge amount at the ECB. That’s definitely a potential target.”