ACT government folks would have been salivating at the sight of all the empty turquoise seats at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday in Australia's one-day international series opener against the West Indies.
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Less than 6000 people were at the iconic venue when play began at 2.30pm, with a total crowd of 16,342 coming through the gates to see the reigning ODI World Cup champions triumph by eight wickets. In a stadium with capacity for 100,000, it was a grim scene.
Though Cricket Australia avoided the record-low attendance of 10,406 set in late 2022 at the MCG when Australia routed England in a 3-0 ODI series win, they were still about 5000 short of expected ticket sales.
As the poor turnout prompted cricket tragics to debate the relevance of the one-day game and the ever-growing international schedule, back in Canberra, the government and Cricket ACT were most likely rejoicing.
They are in ongoing talks with Cricket Australia to bring more matches to the capital as the sporting body plots its content calendar for the next seven years.
If the MCG is clearly too big a venue to fill out for some matches, that puts Manuka Oval - and other small stadiums interstate - in the box seat to pounce.
There's little point for Cricket Australia to persist with holding such international fixtures at large stadiums if they simply won't sell enough seats, unless they want to keep seeing those missteps put under the microscope.
![Manuka Oval was sold-out at its last BBL game. Picture by Keegan Carroll Manuka Oval was sold-out at its last BBL game. Picture by Keegan Carroll](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/168198572/ec8ed5c3-373d-4d90-af62-4e456a608ec5.jpg/r0_600_6000_4000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Cricket attendances at Manuka Oval are not always home runs on paper of course, as seen in the 4222 that attended the two recent women's Twenty20 internationals last month between Australia and South Africa.
But like the rare averagely-attended Big Bash League match bafflingly held on a mid-week night in Canberra, timing plays a big part in the capital.
Those women's T20 matches both began at 10.45am on a Saturday and Sunday, while just a few weeks earlier in January, Manuka Oval hosted a Sunday night sell-out with over 11,000 coming out to watch a struggling Sydney Thunder take on eventual grand-finalists, the Adelaide Strikers.
And similarly well-scheduled BBL matches have been regular sell-outs at Manuka Oval.
There's already been some goodwill shown recently towards holding more cricket in Canberra, with legend Ricky Ponting suggesting that the Thunder play at Manuka Oval permanently, considering the state of the Sydney Showground pitch and attendance compared to Manuka Oval.
Following meetings between the ACT government, Cricket ACT and Cricket Australia during the Prime Minister's XI matches in December, Barr was set to meet with CA again in Sydney early this year to resume discussions about Canberra's content wish list.
So watch this space - more cricket could be on the way soon.