Momentum One Day Cup set to blast off

An unseasonably early NZ tour meant that fans had an early taster this year, but now with the start of the season imminent, all eyes arelooking to the franchise teams to provide the action and excitement. 

The opening weekend starts with two day/night matches on Friday 09 October 2015 at SuperSport Park in Centurion (The Unlimited Titans v. Warriors) and on Saturday 10 October 2015 at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg (bizhub Highveld Lions v. Cape Cobras). 

The opening weekend will be completed by a day match between the Sunfoil Dolphins and the VKB Knights at the Pietermaritzburg Oval on Sunday 11 October 2015.

The Titans are the defending champions, having beaten the Cobras by five wickets in last season’s final at Newlands. It was one of the best limited overs finals at franchise level, producing nearly 600 runs, including outstanding centuries by three Proteas, Richard Levi for the Cobras, and Dean Elgar and Albie Morkel for the Titans. Elgar had previously also scored a century against the Dolphins in the qualifier to book the Titans spot with the table-topping Cobras in the Final.

Now in its fourth season as the official sponsor of all one-day events, Momentum along with CSA is re-focusing their attention on improving match attendance by coming up with innovative ways to add value and enhance fan engagement. 

Research has been undertaken to find out what keeps fans away and more importantly what would entice fans and entire families to come and enjoy domestic matches. 

Momentum facilitated 24000 tickets last season and this year Momentum and CSA are hoping to at least double those figures and boost attendance at matches.  Previous innovations include the Momentum Family Area which has been popular because of the chilled, child-friendly environment with extra activities laid on for families, and free or discounted tickets for Multiply (Momentum’s wellness and rewards programme) members. 

Two original fan engagement ideas have emerged this year. 

CSA Schools and Clubs Initiative

CSA have identified a huge potential target audience withinschools and clubs structures around the country and a way to pay it back and pay it forward.  For every ticket purchased for a Momentum One-Day Cup match on www.ticketpro.co.za, the purchaser will get the opportunity to nominate a school or club who will then receive 50% of the value of the ticket.  The system allows you to input any school or club and this will be verified.  .  This is a way to get families to cricket, while also contributing to schools and development cricket with tangible cash benefits.  

 

“Driving crowd attendance in our domestic competitions will once again be a focus and challenge for us during the upcoming season,” explained CSA Chief Executive, Haroon Lorgat. “We believe that we have a significant target audience within our schools and clubs structures.  We want to unlock this, but at the same time give back to these schools and clubs so that they can further develop young talent and the game”.

Momentum’s Free Tickets

With a great initiative like that, Momentum had to come to the party and offer something equally if not more appealing for a large fan base.  From today (01 Oct 2015) Momentum will start offering free tickets to the Momentum One-Day Cup, starting off with qualifying Momentum clients and staff.  

That’s over 2.2-million households that will be able to get up to 12 free tickets for any seat in the stadium, to every match in the Momentum One-Day Cup.  That’s over 30 matches starting in October this year and continuing again in January and February 2016.  Free tickets can be claimed by clicking onto www.ticketpro.co.za, clicking on the Momentum One Day Cup button and choosing the match you’d like to attend.  Click on the Momentum button under the Book Now options and follow the prompts. Tickets can then be self-printed.  

Head of Momentum Brand, Danie van den Bergh said: “Momentum, in conjunction with Unisa has undertaken extensive research into the state of household’s financial wellness and the results are not good.  72 Out of 100 households are under financial pressure, so taking the whole family out can be difficult or even impossible.  We believe that sport and cricket especially, is a great way to unite a nation and bring families and friends together.  With 12 free tickets from Momentum this means that the whole family and even friends can have a great day out on us.”

Tickets are of course still available via hosting stadiums and Ticketpro: www.ticketpro.co.za . Affordable ticket prices start from R30.  Check the Ticketpro website for all match details.  

Jacasport