Vik Banerjee: The Hundred’s First Season of New Ownership, Big Sponsors, & What Comes Next (Ep134)

0:00We've just come off the back of our sixth season and in many respects also our first season. And you went to every game? I did. My wife tells me I have a job that lasts one month so you might as well turn up. I don't know of any others that's gone through the level of change that we've gone through that is unprecedented. In that first round we had over 100 people that put in bids and put in interest for teams so very much buoyed by that. Not over 100? Yeah. We've got incredibly proud and humbled of the investors that we've got. four from the IPL, four from the NFL, Premier League, NASCAR, we've got tech giants, we've got all sorts of different experiences and knowledge now in that melting pot.

0:36Since we chatted two years ago, you've had 500 million in essence now distributed to the English game. I think it's generational change for the sport. In my humble opinion, I think we have now set ourselves apart from the chasing pack with the IPL being kind of out there. Everyone just goes, it's going to be a 2020 competition soon. Why is it not? Why is it? Go on, exclusive.

1:01Hello and welcome to The Business of Sport, the show that takes you behind the scenes with the industry's leading owners, operators and athletes. This week, the time has come to review the latest season of The 100, the ECB's flagship franchise cricket tournament that has showcased its biggest changes yet this year. New owners, new kits, new sponsors and much more. But how did it perform? Managing Director of The 100, Vic Banerjee, rejoins me having appeared on the show when the franchises were being sold a couple of years ago to talk us through some of the key points that I think need addressing.

1:31As you'll hear, I'm a fan of it. I'm sure some of you will shake your head at that while others may agree but I want to test some of the criticisms and see how this edition has been viewed internally and what we can expect in the future. So let's get to it. I'm delighted to welcome Vic to the Business of Sport. The Business of Sport is supported by Airwallex, the intelligent financial platform used by more than 200 ,000 modern businesses, from SaaS and marketplaces to some of the most ambitious organizations in sport, including McLaren Racing, Arsenal and the San Francisco Giants. The off-pitch problem is simple.

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3:44Vic, good afternoon. Welcome back. Thank you very much. Great to be here. Back in the seat. It feels like a long time, but I'm glad to be here. We were just reminiscing, wasn't it? A couple of years, I think. And a lot's changed. A lot has happened. Last time, as I said, I think you were just kind of in the process of getting some of the deals done for the teams, and this year was the first year we actually saw a lot of those changes happen um i guess i can't really start anywhere else other than go on tell us how was it was it it was a lot of fun it feels like a lifetime ago when we were doing those deals and in many ways it was um but yeah we've just come off the back of our sixth season and in many respects also our first season um and it was yeah it's been a lot of fun it's been a lot of fun the the new owners and the new structures have bedded in really well and most importantly we've had a really good season of cricket both on the men's and the women's side it's been brilliant we've been helped by the weather um yeah but it's been um but it's been phenomenal is there one one game that was affected by rain that's one game in manchester that one women's game was affected by rain the rest of it was blue skies everywhere that's extraordinary isn't it i mean you can't you can't factor that when it comes in and you went to every game i did i went to every day uh My wife tells me I have a job that lasts one month, so you might as well turn up.

5:01But no, I think it's important. It was, you know, it's such a brilliant tournament. And for someone like me to have the privilege to lead it, to then to be there, to be able to engage with the playing side, but also the operational team that put in so much work behind the scenes to get the games to what they are, get the events and the venues and the broadcast to where they are. but also what I like to do in Northern is just sit in the stands and sit around the stands for a little bit and just kind of get a feel for what's happening and what people are saying so you know it's it's a real privilege to do our jobs yeah and so I enjoy well I you know I sent you a message and said I'd love to do this because for anyone that does tune in regularly they I'm a fan right I've been so grateful thank you thank you and I love it as an experience I think it's been really good i think it's been really fresh and the atmospheres that i've been in as a standard like punter sitting in the seats you know it's been really cool and something that i think cricket has desperately needed in this country for for a long time there is also the other side of it where newspaper headlines and people you know the people that know their cricket will come and all the time comment or say to me oh well you know i don't like it this isn't for me um you know if the tendencies are down all of this you're always going to get that in sport and you've got to be open to it but i thought this was a really perfect time to actually have a look at this from the development perspective because when we did have the chat it was you were positioning something which had had a few years of really good um should we say establishment but that was the major time you were taking this from centrally owned and controlled and operated to does this really have value to people outside of it and that could have backfired massively on you people could have said no sorry don't see the value don't find the assets attractive so from this year what really changed give people an understanding of why this was kind of like iteration one almost all over again so yeah it was a strange brand so for the first five years the hundred had been run entirely centrally and what that means is the initial team names and brands were all controlled centrally for a fan buying a ticket to any of the games was all sold and issued centrally for all of the kind of player contracting we did at the ecb for all of the you know hiring the security guys everything from start to end was all done centrally from one office at lords and that was great and to use your word establishment it established the tournament and it did great things and it had done some wonderful things in its five years that it had done and a lot of credit to to a lot of people for that but we just felt that it almost because of its success it had hit a ceiling of what could be done with a small number of people based out ofst john's wood um how do you take what it had done and build on it and go to the next level so that's where the investors came in that's where the kind of the operational change with the teams came in and that That was in the plan from day one.

8:05That was always the plan. That was always the plan. That was always the vision when we went to market was, okay, if we can't do it, then who can? Who are the very best people in the world at fan engagement, at digital and data, at commercial growth, at cricket, and so on and so forth? And if you can get them around a metaphorical board table or looking at the 100 going, well, here's how I can help, here's how I can improve, here's an idea, then some magic is bound to happen. And I don't know what that is. And some of it we've seen, some of it will come in years to come, but something will happen.

8:39And so that was always the plan when we went out to seek the investment. We've absolutely got that, in my opinion. We've got, you know, incredibly proud and humbled of the investors that we've got. Four from the IPL, four from other sports. We've got kind of NFL. We've got the Premier League. We've got NASCAR. We've got the tech giants. We've got all sorts of different experiences and knowledge now in that melting pot. What then happened this year in terms of the amount of change is massive. So you go from that all being run centrally to effectively now the league being run similar to the NFL or other leagues of our nature where the teams themselves are responsible for their ticket sales, they're responsible for their branding, they're responsible for their commercial sponsorship.

9:30We at the center effectively do a few things. We govern the league. So a lot of the regulations and that governance side sits with us. We work with broadcasters and help the broadcasters display our tournament in the best possible light. And then we have our own commercial deals that we work with. And then what happens effectively is the central revenues get distributed 80-20. So each team gets what turns out to be 10%. we keep 20 % which then gets redistributed into the into the sport okay and therefore the challenges if you're going into this season to overcome yeah were from an operational perspective having eight individual businesses really running and making sure that all of those different parts of those businesses could function to ensure that oh it was the business maintained its what power i guess it was a huge i mean i don't know of any others that's gone through the the level of change that we've gone through is unprecedented because it's not just eight it's kind of 16 because this time last year October actually last year some into December the teams were signing their own deals so you've got the venue like an oval or Surrey signing a deal with Reliance two very successful organizations in their own right they were coming together to create a partnership that partnership was them figuring each other out and at the same time as doing that they were that we were figuring out a relationship with them as a team as as my london um and so to go from that and then go okay now by the way you've got to find sponsors you've now got to sell tickets to your home games you've got to create a brand and start to build an affinity and a fandom in your own kind of location and do that eight times over so effectively 16 times over was was huge and you know hopefully not really massive for a fan if that makes sense i would hope that a fan would be able to buy a ticket with their family come and watch and just enjoy the experience but behind the scenes there is a huge amount of change that's gone on okay so attendance something that was brought up immediately um i will say some people talking about it from a positive perspective I was at the Oval for that opening game with you and I saw it in all its glory to the extent where over 20 ,000 people for the men's game, over 10 ,000 for the women's, I think.

11:48The concourses were alive. It was great. It was a really good atmosphere. Then you see other matches which didn't have as good attendance. The total stats, you had over half a million, I think, throughout this. Yeah, about 550 ,000 in total. But not as many as you did last year. Great, yeah. stick beat for people right how have you looked at attendance internally from that success perspective and where you really wanted to be look given the change we talked about i'm very happy with where where we are to get 550 000 tickets sold i think is a real positive it's a real positive for cricket to get that number really importantly as well the demographics were there to your point i you know i challenge anyone to walk around any of the concourses and not have smile on their face because there are there are kids everywhere having a great time um so the i think we had 40 uh just over of our attendees were families with kids and that's brilliant that's brilliant for the sport so given that i you know really happy with the attendances yes look we we hold our hands up we're not perfect we haven't achieved a sellout at every game that's obviously the aim and there were games and lessons learned where we want to improve next year but i think having had this year i think next year will be will be even bigger still and even more positive we'll keep going with our demographics we're still all about growth we're still all about families and so it'll be bigger and better next year do you think that the fact it didn't follow a major test series does play a part i saw that referenced by a number of people um without getting you know too technical and all those sorts of things, there's effectively the 100 shifts year on year.

13:32So some years it is after a major five match men's test series, so the men's ashes or an India series. And then the 100 is a bit later in August. In other years, like it was this year, we have a New Zealand series and a Pakistan series and we slot in the middle, which the ticket sales historically have always been much higher after the ashes or after an india series a couple of reasons it's a bit latest you have more time to sell those tickets but cricket rises and cricket sells other cricket you know you think next year with the ashes coming up and the opportunity hopefully that england have to to do well off the back of that we will sell tickets and that will really help so for a year for an even year when we're slightly earlier i believe we were there thereabouts is the highest year of ever of ticket sales um which again comes back to my point that we're really happy with where we are but but places to improve next year yeah colin graves when he came on talked about a core reason for the hundred being to not just recycle the let's say one million people that engage with cricket in this country which is what we'd seen historically for many years i.e if there was a new short form tournament it would still be the same people that would be engaging with maybe the test format or the four-day game the aim of the 100 from day one was to do something different to that and bring people that didn't have that history that association with cricket into the ground now you mentioned those stats did have a look at it and from my side it's massively influential in developing what colin said about that because if 22 percent of tickets were to junior fans under 16 40 percent of families 28 for women they're not coming to other necessarily to lots of other forms of cricket our purpose is simple we have to throw cricket's doors open to as many people as possible and that can be look if you're a um you know so i play for gloucester there are people there that follow the county championship they're very welcome absolutely but equally welcome and accessible needs to be for those that are maybe a sports band but have never tried cricket before or find cricket a bit daunting we've got to bring children in because they're the lifeblood in generations to come they're those that are going to be playing it they're going to be watching it they're going to be buying tickets so bringing them into the sport is huge so that is our aim that is what we've set up almost a simple purpose right from the very start and that dna runs through everything we try and do as a tournament how do you reflect on your communication do you think you speak about it in the best way possible when you talk about the things and the ways you can develop and i'm not pinning this on any form of communication that i think hasn't been good but you know how you communicate with an audience how you try and capture them how you try and deal with the negativity that surrounds something how you quell the fears of emotion in sport which you know we said before we came on is obviously the driver of so much about the best things of sport but it can also be a big problem you being able to communicate to these to this audience's potential audience in the right way is going to be a huge part of you filling those stadiums that aren't necessarily full of making those people feel included in something that is new and let's be honest right it may be threatening or challenging to the sport that they love yeah look i think we you can always improve how you do things i think what we have um and tried to be very clear on is a core set of principles that we're what we're about and what we're trying to do and i think then if you put at the heart of that some high quality cricket so the product what you see on the field is unbelievable and that is impressive you know in the in the final cipher smashing it to all parts of the ground whether you've you know my dad was there and my son was there my dad's watched cricket for for his whole entire life he was really impressed with that as was my eight-year-old who just enjoyed balls flying everywhere and fireworks going off yeah and and so if that product stays really positive and high quality then our role is to be authentic in how we talk about the sport and who we're trying to talk to.

17:32I think this year one of the things that we've learned is that with eight or nine teams and us we can do that better in terms of how we coordinate amongst ourselves. But I would like to think that hopefully you have an authenticity in what we're trying to do. We are always going to receive some criticism. We take that on board. We do listen to it. We look at it and see if there are things that we can improve off the back of it because we don't want to exclude anyone that's that's the opposite of what we're trying to do is trying to you know we want everyone but as i say regardless of your affinity already to the sport to feel like actually the hundred is something i really enjoy and want to come and see record attendances this year you had a few yeah right they were you had am i right in saying three three in like three one in wales which was a record for for them yes but you also had three record attendance is total number most people through the gate is that yes for a women's game at lords and the third one i believe was the oval but i may have got that one yeah do you have a london versus the rest of the country challenge the experiences i've had and this is all i can base it on have all been in london so i'm very conscious of of that and me saying this is great but it does also strike me that it is perfectly tailored for london i think there are differences And I think that's what we have to be alive to.

18:51And part of the reason for doing the JV, if you like, and having the county involved in each of the teams is that you can, you are then able to have that deep rooted connection and knowledge of the local area. and I think what I've learned through this last year is that is a hugely important and I won't call it a challenge I just think there's different there is a difference with the fan base in Birmingham as there is in Cardiff as there is in South London I don't think one is good or bad or more attuned or less attuned to them but those that have done well this year and you you mentioned Welsh Fire they've done brilliantly this year their fandom numbers their digital numbers their attendances like you say what you know they sold out um on i think you know on a saturday they had great crowds and on a monday night it was unbelievable but what they did fantastically was lean into the fact that they are the welsh fire and lean into that aspect of the local audience the local fan base and that was driven through the glamorgan team that know know that area so i think that's important and that will increasingly be important going forward that as a tournament we have teams that are rooted in the local geography and a competition we are rooted in the england and wales kind of uh as a foundation of one of our ends so what were the discussions if you were privy to them on the branding elements because you had four teams that rebranded let's say and four that maintained their original identity when there's the rebrand you've been working for five years to establish something from scratch which is incredibly hard in sport now you're as you said kind of going again any associations that may have been established now have to develop or change again how did you deal with those challenges i think the teams have done a great job i can you can completely understand why teams would want to do that especially when you have a a global portfolio and brands that you can therefore use to your advantage to bring fans in from around the world but those that did rebrand were aware that they had work to do and have done brilliantly from you know the manchester and leeds teams that were giving away shirts um from you know my land that had the shirt exchange so if you had an over invincible shirt you could swap that in and i thought they've they've done a great job in there again in one year um it was fascinating to see the amount of manchester uh super giant shirts or the Sunrisers Leeds shirts not at the cricket grounds so you'd be wandering around Leeds you'd be wandering around Manchester interestingly as well you'd see them at away games which I think that's the first time and it's anecdotal but the first time I've really noticed that you would go to the Oval and see yellow for Trent Rockets or you'd go to Birmingham and see the orange of Sunrisers and so on and so forth so I think they've all taken it upon themselves in different ways aware of the challenge to establish that brand over the coming years it will take time it's not an overnight thing but we've had a really good start what do you think about the headlines because i've seen a few and i was quite interested to see what people meant by it where you said you've had these core identities and and rules that you've lived to yeah for the competition today i saw one looking at it going well the specific headline was the hundreds costly makeover still leaves english cricket playing a waiting game i.e what really what they were saying and that is we're still trying to understand what this actually is is that fair because i i didn't feel immediately when i read that i was like well i kind of know i think what it is um look i think the so the the core tenets that you you know i mentioned and you referenced there is it's always been about growth new fans coming into the sport establishing ourselves as this unmissable event of the summer that is designed to throw create stores open and that's what we've been about with then you add on top of that it's around the gender parity and the men's and women's on you know one club two teams equal footing and and that dna runs throughout and has done through that what we now need to do to go to the next level is to deepen fandom of the eight teams it i understand and appreciate the the feedback of previous years and probably still to this date fans are coming because it's a great day out at the 100 we are now only now starting to build a i'm coming because i'm a my london fan or i'm a sunrisers leeds fan and that is the next step that we need to do to become where we want you know to achieve our objectives but that's not an overnight thing that's that's years in the making to get to that point i have no doubt we'll get there but i don't think that just you can't just flick a switch and say you're you know you're a deep-rooted Birmingham Phoenix van and that's it that's who you are that'll take time yeah commercially to me it looked like a real level up and I mean that just purely as like the breadth of associations that you seem to have now part of this this year you had I mean what you had Barclays you had Soak and Skechers Vitality DP World all on fronts of shirts that's a huge part of developing value in emerging sports but it's also a huge part in now creating more value driving better business and i'd imagine the new ownership that you have being able to add some form of value and bring their networks and experiences into the exactly and you'd hope it's a bit of a kind of a virtuous cycle right you establish yourself you've got massive brands there that are associated and you'd hope this year the more massive brands kind of go well actually i'd like to be associated with with this sport um and so it was a you know and you'd think that as that grows it was important for us to establish ourselves in that way and that will continue to build and i do yeah it's one of the many areas that you think when you've brought this caliber of people into our sport the commercial side will see a series of step changes in the right direction for a lot of them this year was a lot about learning and understanding the uk kind of sports ecosystem and how that works and so i'm looking forward to another busy winter as we go again on that side of things for what we do.

25:00How are the deals done? And are they generally done annually? Are they longer term? Yeah, it varies. Some of them are done three years. Some of them were one-year deals. That's done by team by team. So front of shirt now we're not involved in. That is a team to do their relationship. So they vary across the different teams. Where's the big value you think now that you can build on after this year? Now people have actually seen this product. I think it's important. Yes, there's kind of the revenue side of things, But if you look at our audience and those audiences that perhaps aren't as high affinity to cricket at the moment, I'd like to go where they are and what's relevant to them, what's important to them, what's cultural to them.

25:40And brand partnerships can really help with that because they give relevance to us because that brand has gone there. And so that's something I'd like to explore through this winter to see what we can bring in either centrally or for a team for next year. we always talk in sport about value-add investors and i'd imagine when you would bring people into the investment groups that again was a huge part commercially was have you seen that has that been an area where there's been a real opportunity to start moving everything on yeah the the investors that we've got are definitely value-added investors they're incredible uh each you know in different ways and with their own ways you know but the the caliber and quality whether that's conversations that you can have and kind of guidance that they can give to me in terms of here's how i would do it here's some ideas here's that or whether it's for their own team and like you say kind of contacts and black books that they can open they've added a lot of value already the question i get asked a lot um whether it's associated with a show or whether it's a conversation about why i actually enjoy uh why i enjoy it i often get a why couldn't they have done this with the blast Yeah, but it also isn't the blast.

26:54And I wasn't, you know, it wasn't my decision. I don't know all the details of it. But one of the things I will say is that I think it's great for English cricket that there are two. There's not many sports or many even within the cricket ecosystem that has the opportunity to have the 100 and what the 100 can do and is doing. but also to have the blast and what the blast is for and what that's doing, which gives you a kind of a summer round suite of products that allows each to go in their own direction without everything falling on one thing and one thing only. So what's the blast for that the 100 isn't?

27:30What's the 100 for that the blast isn't? Well, I think what the blast provides is 18. So every kind of county, every venue has a number of games. It has attendance and good attendance at those games with those that have high affinity to those counties. And again, while that serves us that, ours then becomes the kind of the growth products in those peak months. And I'm sure lots of conversations are having a time. But that now, for me, fits really well for both products. And I genuinely believe that both products can and will thrive in years to come almost because of each other. You know, the 100 needs the blast.

28:11You know, it produces a whole host of players and fandoms that come across that way. And I would hope that the 100, as the 100 grows in prominence and grows cricket's fandom, some of them will move to the blast. And so that coexistence will be beneficial for both. A huge part of the 100 and its formation was also its ability to support English cricket financially. Yes. When we were talking about that previously, it was a hypothetical from a distribution point of a big pot of money. Hopefully this will go down. But since we chatted two years ago, you've had 500 million in essence now distributed to the English game.

28:48You can't underestimate the importance and the value of that in the sport. How do you see that making the difference? It's incredible. I think it's generational change for the sport. I think, but what's really important now is that money, which is huge sums of money, multiples of what an annual turnover is of some of the counties, that is invested well. Because what now needs to happen is that the all 18 counties can use that funding, a little bit like a kind of a seed funding, to ensure that their business model now is robust and sustainable for the long term. And if they do that, then they'll set cricket up for generations to come, which is unbelievable.

29:32regardless of your fandom of the sport. And what that means in each of the 18 counties varies and will vary based on where, you know, each of the counties. But I'm confident they will. And once it is invested well, it'll be unbelievable. And can you just quickly explain to those that may not know how the distribution worked? Because you only have eight teams, but as you said, there were previously, you know, there are 18 counties. So for the way that it works is that for every pound that comes in, 10p goes to the recreational game. So 10 % is the recreational game regardless of, so all the sales, all the money is all brought into one central pot.

30:1110 % to the recreational game. And recreational game is like grassroots. Grassroots. So that's 50 million to grassroots. Grassroots. And then they have a board effectively that looks at that money and has distributed it to different county boards and how that gets used, that 50 million. For the remainder of the money, there is effectively quite a complicated formula that splits it amongst the 18 professional first class professional counties. And what it ended up being is that if you were a host venue of the 100, then there's 18 million there and thereabouts. if you're a non-host there's about 26 million that you have the um on that capital sums there are some restrictions of what you can spend it on um but the interest of which you can imagine is quite a substantial amount uh is is yours as a county uh to keep as well on top of that on that man so if you don't have a franchise do you the money generated centrally does that is there a pot of that that still gets distributed are you is it or is it a one-off payment or is it uh we made x amount let's just say this year yeah a portion of that x amount even if owned by the individual teams gets re-centralized into a pot and then distributed amongst 18.

31:31Yeah, so effectively, so my old team, Gloucestershire, has 26 million pounds available to it. The way they get access to that 26 million pounds is effectively through a business case. So, you know, if they wanted to do capital expenditure, whether they wanted to, you know, if they have debt that they need to refinance, whatever it may be, there's a business case in that they give some access to that. while that money is sitting there any interest goes it still belongs to glostrisis so that 26 at some point will become 27 become 28 and so on and so forth yeah but that's still that's theirs yeah but it's stuff like infrastructure project right long-term value building rather than plugging immediate holes or being allowed to then go and spend more and lose more right the business change the business change the business model needs to change or adapt or improve so that the club is then sustainable once they have spent or you know some or all of that money yeah you can't go back to the world you can't do this again so it has to plug any holes it needs to for the long term can you just drill home the importance of that grassroots piece because a 50 million injection into the system i don't care where that comes from if i'm a cricket fan right whether i like the 100 or not but i want the game to be as healthy as possible the foundations of it are anyone's ability to get access to the game to pick up a bat to have a facility right so the importance of you being able to attribute some of that money directly to this which feeds the county's future hundred players test match players right what is it's so important and it's something that i was personally you know i am very passionate about you know i've cricket's given me so much in my life you just want as many boys and girls to have that opportunity to play the sport and so with all that we're doing we're trying to inspire them to to fall in love with cricket and that 50 million can be spent and will be spent on all sorts of things that's so important that sadly isn't there at the moment things like places to play and facilities and access to sports and equipment and coaches so that when you know someone's five or six years old they can actually have some great experiences with our sports and then who knows some of them are going to go on to be the next natske of a brunt or you know or whoever it might be some will just love the sport and start watching it on telly some will buy tickets and and come to games some will turn up every saturday afternoon and thursday evening and train and play club career that how they love the sport is almost irrelevant but to give them that opportunity is so important expansion franchises is that on the agenda not right now but look i've said before if if the tournament does really well and grows and it's almost like a sign of success that there is room and scope for for more teams there's more demand there's more passion for more teams but we have to be careful that we do it for the right reasons and that is the growth of the tournament um so in a few years time absolutely we want to be looking yeah but when you went through the process i mean i guess you were you interest that you received and i mean from the investment side you were buoyed by the amount of people keen to pick this up in that first round we had over a hundred people that put in bids and put in interest for for teams so very much buoyed by that um over a hundred yeah yes um for across the eight teams which is great um and hopefully if we continue to show potential and show growth the tournament that number will will continue to grow and we'll have more interest in from different people so i'm hopeful that the the demand side stays positive um and that's not a not a barrier i don't think it will be right now but we just need to establish the tournament as it is at the moment first how do you filter 100 down to eight without giving away the real secrets um the process was was fascinating uh it was really enjoyable um some of it now

35:38so we the bids that came in were for individual teams and we had some people some firms that were like i've got eight teams here are eight bids others were no that is my team that's the only one bid i'll have okay we then um were because of the jv we then went to the the venue so take knots for example with rent rockets and said look here are the bids that have come in from you we reviewed paper bids and then it was october november it was about a month where we organized meetings between so one side of table was a venue other side was a potential investor i would give my vision for trent rockets and where i see it going they would do the same and you'd have these kind of matchmaking kind of sessions that were half a day to a day long and off the end of it we'd then work with the venue to go okay let's narrow those those down um you'd then have another round of bids and then you the final round was an auction and at that point between us and the venue the venue had to pick um at least two so you'd have some competitive tension and they would say well we're happy with that any of those any of those would be fine and some were two some were four or five um and then that final round of an auction it is it's based on it's an auction so it's whatever the numbers and there was a lot of commentary around the pricing oh sorry pricing should we say the eventual value that was brought out of that was that the result purely of an auction rather than anything being set and how did because you know some went for more money than others did as you would anticipate it also kind of all contributed to that central part right yeah and and and part of the reason for the numbers was um we'd had three rounds of bids already so we kind of knew where things were going there's always going to be a premium on london cities over over some others um some was because of demand frankly if you have lots of uh people demanding and wanting to be part of that city then prices are right it's basic economics and then others you know the the counties themselves and the venues have done a great job you know these meetings and selling their vision how they're going to work with you how that can work and what they can bring so they're also buying into that partnership and that partnership works really well so it was a combination of lots of different things uh that came together um to help get us to where we got yeah when you were here last time you were adamant right that this was good you wanted to build this into one of the top short-form franchises and we talked about the level of competition that you have even fitting into a calendar and getting the players involved and all this you've got the the credibility that comes with major investment coming in you've got a very good product which is succeeding how do you look at the hundred now in the landscape of cricket and where you want to be versus the work you still need to do to sit it right at that top table but also one thing you really tied into there was you need to have the financial power to do it as well yeah even more bullish even more kind of confident but excited as well that we can be an unmissable event of the sporting calendar so cricket yes but just the sporting calendar this year the thing that will set us up in my opinion for the long term is the quality of sport went up a massive level and i in my humble opinion i think we have now set ourselves apart from the chasing pack um with the IPL being kind of out there and the WPL on the women's side so that will give us a really strong foundation we then have all the other things that are going with it in terms of our investment in our board the investors that come in the venues that we've got which are fantastic and in their own right and i think we have an amazing opportunity to become a real key moment for those that watch cricket but also watch a number of sports in this in this country so hugely exciting yeah what about the talent because getting the best talent not just in cricket across all sport now for any competition is a huge driver Yeah, great players on both sides, on the men's and women's side in this edition.

39:44But again, sorry, just tap back into the piece you said last time. You also need to have the financials to attract the best players to the tournament. So where are we at from the talent perspective? So what we did in the first thing was we were able to increase the salary caps. So each team has a salary cap, which they can spend up to in the men's and the women's. That was hugely increased. We then reshuffle the teams so that there's an equality across all eight. what is that uh so for the men it is uh 2.1 a million pounds for the women it is 900 000 up from was that like increase no no it was huge so the women were at 400 and the men was 1.2 1.3 i think so so big big jumps yeah uh for that very reason um as you point out i also think it's important important that we look after our players as well because these not kind of the top players now get so many opportunities and so many chances to play around the world and earn huge sums of money that it's those small things that apps almost in a weird way count for more uh and so you know we we it's the team's responsibility but we employ them and they do buy in that look after the players their families their children all those sorts of things which all goes down really well i think we've got a you know we don't have to fly everywhere that helps yep as well and all those other things that come into it.

41:08So we try and create a really brilliant environment for the players on the basis that if they enjoy coming here, they'll come back again and they'll perform at their very best. But that, I think now we've got the, there weren't many people that we kind of missed out on in this year's edition, definitely on the women's side. And on the men's side, obviously, we still can't have Indian male players. But apart from that, we've got a really really good crop of both English and overseas players. So I think we're up there. Can you explain why you can't have Indian? Just people, right? So at the moment, there is a rule from the BCCI that says that Indian male players are only allowed to play for India or for the IPL.

41:49They're not allowed in any other tournaments around the world. On that business side, you mentioned there's a cost cap. How important is the revenue, the business models of these franchises? We've got good values attached to them. You want to make them really good businesses as well. and I'd imagine you have to give and you do give now the level of autonomy for the individuals to do that but I'm sure there is also some form of governance on your side to make sure that the businesses are being run as you hope they are or should be yeah and look I think it's important that this is a long-term tournament and these teams continue to thrive not just for one year but for many many years into the future that's the only way we're going to achieve our ambitions so the salary cap learning from other sports is one of those really important bits of governance that a it helps business model it also helps the the kind of jeopardy of the tournament the fact that not one club has got all the players they are spread out and we had a really you know one of the things about this tournament this year is you couldn't have predicted who was going to win at the start of the tournament both men's or women's and that's brilliant from a league perspective probably less so if you're a team owner you'd like it to be obvious but from a league perspective it's brilliant but that then gives you a real on the biggest line item you'd expect there is a cap which then allows you and allows teams to be sustainable not just this year but next year and going on and going forward and there'll be a conversation I'm sure where the cap type thing can increase once the businesses mature and show themselves so you're just going to evolve it as per the success of the product rather than the unsustainable element which we talk about a lot right which sports has an unfortunate habit of doing, of overextending itself too early, and particularly when it comes down to wages and fees, etc., associated with talent, steps outside of the means of the actual business capability.

43:36You can see how it happens. It's easy to do, but it's so important that we keep that salary cap kind of model on and that control going through it. So where does that cap put you in comparison to other short-form competitions? So the IPL on the men's side is miles ahead. The WPL on the women's side is miles ahead. For both men's and women's, we are now second, but not miles ahead of third, fourth, and fifth South Africa and Big Bash. But enough to mean that we can attract those players. We've also then got the window and the other things that you talk about that come together. And also now, I'd like to think that because the quality was so good, other players now look at it and go I can earn equivalent but that's where I want to be playing because it's a best versus best tournament the player experiences are a huge part of making any tournament attractive because as you just said it also is the key part that they go back and say hey I had a great time playing for the 100 but what have you heard back from the players?

44:39I think they're in a really good place we've worked hard and continue to work hard with them and either through the teams or with them directly to make sure that they have a really good experience here. We want them, this tournament, to be the one that they love the most. Sure, you can earn more money in India, and that's great, and I'm sure they have a great time there, but we have an opportunity here to be the most loved. And so, as you mentioned there, they then become our biggest marketing tool for other players, because they will bring in their mates and say, come play this tournament, because it's brilliant.

45:10So, at the moment, and some of them have talked about it publicly in terms of the experience they had, the quality they had, the way that they were looked after um i think we're in a really good really good place what about the international element obviously on the players front is really important what's the data like internationally for the attention around the tournament um it's growing it's it is growing you know especially in india and in in the us with some of our investors um and then the other markets africa and so on and so forth i think to date with i think what's important with that is that the 100 remains while we want to grow globally we have to make sure that we have really strong foundations in the UK so our first and foremost priority is the UK sports fan base because if we have strong foundations here we can then go from from this place and I think if you look at the very best sports products pretty much to a tee around the world the IPL is so dominant in India and then it's starting to grow overseas the NFL is so dominant in the US and now it's starting to grow overseas the premier league went on a similar journey it's now massive overseas but it spent the first what was 20 years very much uk based so we're in that early stages where our focus is very much on the uk and the uk uh fan and then we'll start to build our growth in the other opportunities that we have and your uk talent kind of reflects that right i mean the involvement from the growth of a team and the establishment team yes the overseas are great they're great kind of gold dust sprinkled on top but it's it's the it's the local uk talent that really is the backbone of any of those teams yeah where are we at with broadcast i know previously it was tied in with test matches um does that is that still the same does anything change as the competition develops does it separate yeah such media is the huge business line that obviously everyone knows within sport we're partnered with sky and bbc and through to 2028 both of them um have been brilliant partners for us so far and the amount that they invest both resource and time and kind of cross marketing through their own uh tools has been brilliant um and hopefully we as we grow we're we will in time provide them with more and more value as the tournament grows because they get what they want to to get out of it so that's our focus for now through to 28 and we'll see where we'll see where it gets to we touched on it a few times but i do want to give it its individual focus a huge part of this has been aligning the men's and women's game and creating like a day if you want of of entertainment what it looks like it's done from the outside for women's cricket is huge can you add some real context and value to what it actually has achieved and what you've seen running this over the last few years because I don't think that can be passed over.

48:01No, we're proud of that and it's something that we want to keep and keep going again. So you mentioned some record crowds. Once again this year, we saw record crowds for women's cricket at 100 games beating previous 100 games record crowds. So hugely proud of it. It's been a phenomenal summer full stop for women's cricket with the World Cup happening just before. So if you zoom out and look at the sport and where it is and where it's come from and look at what this summer held, that is unbelievable progress. By no means the end of the road. There's a long way that we want to keep it going. But, you know, we talked about previously kind of a salary cap of nearly a million players getting, you know,£200 ,000 plus individually this year.

48:53when in previous years when we first started which wasn't that long ago you know the total cap was 60 000 um so that that growth is been quite phenomenal um the you know we we continue to think of ways and the i should say the helix trophy this year was another step an attempted step in that direction of bringing the men's and women's closer together of kind of you have the women's winners you have the men's winners well who was the best franchise who managed to do that the best and that was again a real positive step and so we'll we'll try and take all of those things and build again but um yeah some really really positive uh movement yeah what do you think of the view and again something i get asked about a lot everyone just goes it's going to be a 2020 competition soon why is it not why is it go on exclusive no no seriously like why does the 100 exist outside of all of the other formats when people do just look at this and particularly now as we've just highlighted with ownership groups coming in who own other t20 franchises you can see where they get it they just go two years t20 yeah i i think it's a it's a strange one because i think it's a red herring i genuinely do i think if you go back to my previous point the hundred or any sporting competition needs to have really strong roots in its domestic market it needs to be really deeply embedded for it to be successful and the 100 was born out of a lot of research a lot of insight on the uk domestic market which is very very different to the indian market where they have 1.4 people all of them cricket fans understand the intricacies of t20 cricket we don't have that luxury here and so here the research into time into the barriers of cricket from sports fans came up with time complexity and perception and that effectively is what we set about breaking down step by step uh to create the hundred and almost the format kind of falls off off the back of it rather than it being the the driving force it is shorter it is you were able to present it in a very different way we're able to we're able to present it in a way that pulls it apart from from the blast and those sorts of things but for those that follow cricket and know cricket um i mean it's not that again my six-year-olds get it it is effectively t20 but with five balls uh as opposed to six it's it's it's similar enough it's still the very best bowlers in the world steaming in against the very best batters in the world trying to hit them out of the park um and so it's working at the moment in the uk as can be seen this year in previous years and i think that's the focus that we've got to keep going towards and what we can improve that rather than a distraction on on a format because of other countries and what they do in other countries well tamar mills when he came on here played every season of the hundred uh was the leading wicket taker i think until this year i'm not sure if he still is uh he when we were talking about this said look a huge part of it even from your viewership as a fan right what happened when i went to that game well actually as you know what we were done by nine yeah and if you've got families in there as well i'd imagine that's influential but he also said look if you're top and tailing and you're having men's and women's games next to each other and you want to build this if you add another let's say hour onto each that's yeah a big part of it whether and that's actually whether you're on a broadcast audience watching on telly or you're in the ground the doubleheaders are so important to what we do or the gender parity part of is so important.

52:3220 balls might not seem like a lot, but 20 balls innings is 40 balls a match. That's 80 balls across the day. That is a decent chunk of time. That's an hour and a half, a couple of hours. So if we want to keep that part that is so core to us and so important to us, then that really helps because a family attending a match done at nine, yeah, it might be depending on their age of their kids might be still a late night but not too late whereas a t20 10 10 30 you're then back closer to midnight it becomes tricky or you start the game much earlier the doublehead is much earlier and then there's then an impact on the women's game that because the day becomes quite long whether you're watching or attending in bowl so there are some real big advantages of that that it does it does bring and like i say with that and in my opinion still working and the quality is still great players enjoying it um i think that's really important how much do you look at everything else going on around cricket multi-formats long form short form discussions over who can thrive and who can survive and how money's distributed etc now having such an influential world running one of these top franchise tournaments how important is it for you to be across everything understanding all that's going on how you can make sure that you can apply the best bits of what's happening in global cricket to the hundred how you can understand how to best speak to the players because yes you joked your wife said that you you work for one month well i'm sure she may believe that i'd imagine it's not true yeah look i i think the world of cricket full stop whether it's franchise cricket or bilateral cricket or the icc you know is in a massive change period um which if nothing else is fascinating just to kind of observe and watch.

54:25In our role and the privilege that you have is that you're able or you try to pick a magpie, the best bits of it, and adapt as quickly as you can to that changing world. But then that and the combination, again, I come back to the investors we've got, we can magpie from all different sports. You know, what is it that football is doing so well that we can see if we can grow from? what you know you talk about fan engagement with young kids and how we can build that well you know see of youtube's part of a an investment committee at the london spirit so let's just go and speak to them directly there's there's lots of things that you can bring in um and yes there's a lot to learn in cricket but then you can you can even go broader than that about sport and fan engagement and entertainment what is it that we can continue to do and so at the 100 we want to yes grow the fandom deepen the fandom deepen the high quality cricket but we want to also make sure it's just it is sport and entertainment and people that can come even if you you know we were you know joking about the football before even if your team gets battered you have a great day and it's a really fun day out for the family and can you build both of those that's a lie by the way he told me that he turned Aston Villa off yesterday just before before half time so did you have a good day for the rest of the day yesterday I I did I watched the Grand Prix it was great so yeah okay found it somewhere else but the binary nature right and that's your word that you use and i think it's spot on and how we generally approach as fans sport today that's a really challenging environment to operate within it is challenging but it's also privilege right that sport is so patched so many people are so passionate about sport we you know sport means so much and so many different things to so many different people you know if we can influence that just one percent that's that's that's not to be taken lightly i certainly don't take it lightly i could be you know working behind a desk in a you know an office somewhere doing something that i don't really care about i care about this sport i really care about cricket about team sports and what it can do and therefore therefore to be able to kind of be involved in that and to influence it is is incredible and that is what gets you out of bed every morning and means you do your best with with the hundred no completely and seeing young people engage with that I'd imagine is a huge part of it because obviously they are the audience now.

56:46Everyone's trying to capture seeing Jude Bellingham come in. You know, it's so easy now for names just to turn up at sports events and just to be associated and everyone questions whether it's genuine, whether it's real, whether they want to be there, whether there's some other reason. But I think, you know, as anyone that was there, as we saw, he actually really wants to be there. He's part of an ownership group. It's not just, oh, okay, you know, I'll put a bit of money. It's brilliantly authentic. It's great. it isn't or it doesn't you know seem to be but i'm pretty sure it's not just a bit of money and there you go he was there all day uh he seemed to really enjoy his cricket um he enjoyed spending some time with with the phoenix players um which is great and it's great for our competition to have someone like that involved in it is unbelievable okay so we've had five years we've now had the first year of brand new looking ahead how do you set your targets do you go year by year do you go we would like to be here in five years time what does success for this really look like i think success in the long term is is huge um really exciting the ceiling is now very very high from a sports product full stop um and therefore to your point around how you set it you then we'll set our target and and with the kind of the ambition and the passion of the teams that we've now got around that table very high five ten years down the line okay well to get there the first step we need to do is x and then we need to do y and you go step by step but you will have a north star that means that we are in that sporting calendar an unmissable kind of part of that sporting calendar in august and so yeah hugely exciting if sport is all now stories right is Is that the story you're really trying to tell?

58:32I think, yeah, people engage with stories. They engage with human stories. And I hope that fans can engage with the human side of the competition. We're going to sit here on a business of sport podcast and talk about the business. But the story that I'd hope they'd like to see is Phoebe Litchfield's superb batting or Tim David's amazing catch or Seifert winning the game for the Manchester Super Giants. Those are the stories that I'd like to live and be in people's memories for a while to come. There'll inevitably be a lot of challenges ahead. There'll be ups and downs throughout that. But to your point, we have a great product.

59:11We have a great set of investors. And we've got people up and down the country that are passionate about what we've got that want to try and improve it on a day-by-day basis. So yeah, an exciting time ahead. Awesome. All right. Now I will shut up. Thank you. you so much for coming back in it's great and congratulations to you and all the team putting it together i think it's been um been really cool to watch it grow brilliant thank you very much thanks so much to vic for joining me again go on then nothing complicated to close this time let's have your thoughts what did you agree with what did you not and what would you like to see change in the future whether you're a fan of the hundred or not i still hope you enjoyed the show now if you want to see more from today's show you can do so by going to youtube or any of our other social channels across Instagram, TikTok and of course now Substack.

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