Industry News

TheStadiumBusiness Awards spotlight: Edgbaston

Birmingham’s Edgbaston Stadium has been nominated for this year’s TheStadiumBusiness Awards in the Event of the Year category following its successful hosting of the 2017 NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day.

The Event of the Year award recognises the best sports or non-sports event, guest event, concert or one-off spectacle held at major sports venues over a 12-month period.

Edgbaston’s T20 Blast Finals Day has been nominated alongside the First Day-Night Ashes Test at Adelaide Oval, Australia; Wrestlemania at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida; #Game4Grenfell at Loftus Road, home of English Championship football club Queens Park Rangers; ‘Battle of Brisbane’ – the WBO Title Fight at Suncorp Stadium in Australia; and Arsenal FC in Sydney Tour, ANZ Stadium/VenuesLive in Australia.

Last year’s Finals Day saw Notts Outlaws defeat home side Birmingham Bears to claim the title, and the event was considered one of the best in the tournament’s 15-year history. It marked the ninth time that Edgbaston has staged the event.

One thousand runs were scored for the first time, while a record crowd of 24,246 turned out to watch the action. A post-event survey completed by ticket purchasers also returned a match-day experience score of 8.8 out of 10. Within this, Finals Day achieved its highest-ever score for atmosphere, which was ranked at 9.4 out of 10.

Gareth Roberts, commercial director at Warwickshire County Cricket Club, said: “NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day at Edgbaston has already been shortlisted for the BT Sport Industry’s Entertainment Experience of the Year, which is arguably the biggest industry awards event in the UK. However, being shortlisted for the Stadium Business Awards puts us onto the international stage against some of the most recognised sporting events in the world.

“Being shortlisted shows how far Finals Day has come, whilst it also demonstrates the strength of the partnership between the England and Wales Cricket Board, Sky Sports and Warwickshire County Cricket Club in delivering such a great event for the record crowd in attendance.”

Finals Day returns to Edgbaston on September 15 this year, with ticket sales up 170 per cent on last year’s event compared to the same period in 2017. Edgbaston recently announced that it would be increasing its capacity to cope with the extra demand for seats.

TheStadiumBusiness.com is profiling nominees in the lead-up to the awards ceremony on June 12 at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester.

A full list of the nominees can be found here.

Image: JimmyGuano