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Cricket facing "substantial" financial loss after 2-day Test
SEN • November 24th, 2025 11:37 am
While Australian cricket fans celebrate the incredible victory over England in the opening Ashes Test, Cricket Australia is staring down the barrel of a multi-million loss in ticket sales.
Travis Head’s sensational knock on day 2 at Optus Stadium paired with a Mitchell Starc special on the opening day of the series meant the hosts took a 1-0 lead after just 48 hours.
An impressive 101,514 supporters attended the opening two days and the third was close to selling out before England’s capitulation. Reports circulating suggest the financial impact on the governing body could be as much as $3 million with TV broadcasters poised to suffer significantly bigger blows.
CA chief executive Todd Green, speaking exclusively with SEN on Saturday morning, said: "It's difficult for a number of different groups,” when asked about the prospect of the Test finishing three days early.
"Our broadcasters first of all. Certainly us, on ticket sales and our partners and sponsors.
"There's a big economic impact on this series."
It’s not good news for a sport who last month announced a loss of $11.3 million.
England found themselves in a dominant position during day two, pulling out to a 105-run lead having lost just one wicket in their second innings.
However, they collapsed in stunning fashion, as Ben Duckett’s outside edge would mark the first of an almighty fall, losing all of their remaining wickets at figures of 9-99.
And to make matters worse, Head deployed England’s game plan to better effect than the English themselves, piling on 123 off 83 balls to decimate England's 205-run lead.
Lifting the lid on what it was like when he worked with Channel 9 and the likely impact on a broadcast partner, SENQ’s Ian Healy said: “When I was at Ch 9 more than five years ago, they paid $80m for 40 days of cricket so $2m a day; and you have to find revenue to cover that.
“Ch7 and Fox have paid more than that, they will be losing $3m for every lost day.
“They have to reschedule all the ads that they have committed to deliver to that size audience, throughout the year. So it stops building revenue elsewhere as well.”
With thousands of fans travelling from both the UK and Australians going interstate, the biggest question will be whether they can expect compensation for days of no cricket.
Australian Financial Review journalist Zoe Samios gave a flicker of hope to some cricket fans when asked about the prospect of a refund on SEN 1170.
“From a ticketing point of view, some people will have bought for all days,” Samios said. “I don’t know the ins and outs of clauses, but you can expect some sort of compensation or refund, particularly for the third day.”
Adding to Healy’s intel on what the impact on broadcast deals would be, Samios said Channel 7 would suffer more than any other party.
“The way broadcast rights are typically bought is on a 3 day Test average, they don’t buy and budget based on five days.
“Where it’s tricky is a 2-day Test, this doesn’t fall back on Cricket Australia. It’s not like an extreme circumstance like Covid 19 clause. The onus will fall back on Channel 7.
“Kayo operates in a different way because they don’t have the ad breaks 7 does.
“When they (Ch7) talk to advertisers they’re giving a minimum guarantee of how many people will be watching. You have one off day, and you don’t have the audience.
“They have a term called “make goods”. They take a revenue hit basically; they now have to find audiences on the network for their advertisers to make up the money or the maximum reach they would have received from a third day.
“We don’t know if the numbers out there are the numbers promised, but it will be a substantial amount.”
The second Test starts in Brisbane on December 4.
