Improved crowd manner pleases

Press, 14 March 1984, Page 4

Improved crowd manner pleases

The improvement in crowd behaviour at the one-day cricket international between New Zealand and England last month has pleased the management committee of the Canterbury Cricket Association. The committee’s meeting last evening received a letter from the Burnside-West-Uni-versity Club, which suggested that not enough children’s tickets had been issued for the family or non-licensed section on the embankment at Lancaster Park. It said that some children were forced to pay $lO to watch the match from the stands. The meeting was told that once it had been realised that 2500 children’s tickets were not enough, the management committee had overstamped 1000 of the 3500 adults’ tickets for the same section to accommodate the demand. As far as the committee was aware, no child had been forced to sit in the $lO seats. Seating had been much improved on the previous season’s one-day match arrangements, but in future the committee might consider an arrangement similar to Eden Park, of having different prices for covered and noncovered stands. The gross gate-takings from

the one-day match were $178,000, of which the Victory Park Board, which administers the ground, took 22.5 per cent. The association received a match-running fee of 5 per cent of the gross gate, less the ground charges, the rest going to the New Zealand Cricket - Council. A special sub-committee of the competitons and gradings committee will prepare a report on the Marist Cricket Club’s bid for senior status next season. The club had written to the management committee, disclosing that a local body keen to see cricket developed in its area was interested in developing a ground with facilities for a senior wicket, plus two or more pitches.