Test tempter for Games followers

The club are planning to approach various travel operators with the aim of getting them to incorporate a visit to Leeds in their Olympic packages.

The Test match runs from August 2-6 – the middle of the Olympics, which takes place from July 27-August 12.

Yorkshire’s sales director Richard Kaye said: “We will shortly be approaching various travel operators who are offering tourism trips to the Olympics to see whether they want to do a cricket bolt-on.

“It’s only a couple of hours up the train line for people to come and watch the cricket, and rather than go to the Olympics every day for a fortnight, we’d like to get them to come up to Yorkshire, perhaps have an overnight stay and see a couple of days’ play.

“Essentially, we will be targeting people who are coming from overseas for the fortnight of the Olympics.

“In marketing parlance, I suppose it’s trying to think out of the box, so to speak.”

Kaye and the Yorkshire marketing team have been one step ahead of the game ever since Headingley was allocated an August Test.

Tickets for the match went on sale in July – three months earlier than usual – and are selling better than expected despite the competing attraction of the Olympic spectacular.

Yorkshire have already sold more than half the 16,000 tickets available for the Friday and Saturday of the Test, days two and three.

In fact, they have already sold more than 24,000 tickets in total thanks to a concerted sales and marketing campaign.

“The Olympics hasn’t had any tangible effect on ticket sales,” added Kaye.

“First of all, we went on sale much earlier than we normally do.

“Second, we went on sale at a time when people knew they could buy a ticket for the Test and definitely get in, whereas for the Olympics they had to go into a ballot and most people ended up disappointed.

“So there was a guarantee of one event as opposed to not much chance of getting into the other.

“At the same time, it’s fair to say that we wouldn’t have expected to sell as many tickets as we have done at this stage.

“We expected to do well – but perhaps not quite as well.

“To have sold out over half the tickets for the second and third day at the start of December is an excellent achievement. Against the current economic backdrop, I wouldn’t have thought that as many people would have committed to watching the Test as early as they have done and laying out money as early as they have done.”

Kaye, who is leaving Yorkshire later this month after three-and-a-half years to return to the England and Wales Cricket Board, where he will become the new head of business development, acknowledged two key factors have assisted sales.

First, England’s new status as the No 1 ranked team in Test cricket and South Africa’s position at No 3.

Second, the fact this will be Headingley’s first England Test match for three years.

“England are the No 1 ranked side and are playing South Africa, so that’s a very exciting prospect,” said Kaye.

“It’s the premier series of the summer and we’re selling some potentially very good cricket.

“In my view, the ticket sales have reinforced the continuing desire of people in Yorkshire to be able to watch good quality England Test cricket.

“We didn’t have a Test match this year, and, the previous year, we had Pakistan versus Australia, so this is the first time in three years that people will have been able to watch England play a Test match at Headingley.”

The Test will be worth around £3m to Yorkshire in terms of turnover – excluding bar and catering income.

After some heavy losses in recent times, the club are budgeted to make money next year and are helped by the guarantee of six days’ international cricket each year until 2019.

Kaye also reports healthy interest in next summer’s one-day international at Headingley.

England will take on the West Indies on June 22 and Yorkshire are hoping for another big turnout.

“There’s been good early demand for that game,” he said.

“At the same time, we know it will require a continuing marketing effort through the next five to six months.

“The positive from our point of view is that Friday, June 22 is a really good date to be staging a one-day international.

“Friday’s a good day for people to take a day off work to come and watch it, while it’s also after the school exams, so there’ll be a few 16-18-year-olds knocking around.”