MCG Final a chance as BBL eyes Perth, Melbourne

Big Bash officials are exploring the prospect of holding the BBL|10 Final at a neutral venue as they continue to put plans in place for what will be an atypical season.

Today's confirmation of a rejigged schedule will be followed by more announcements in the coming weeks, with the league increasingly hopeful of taking matches to Perth, Melbourne and Sydney in the new year.

The venues for the first 21 matches of the season were announced today – matches will be played in Tasmania, Canberra, Queensland and South Australia in December – and officials have their fingers crossed that Australia’s state borders will continue to open up, which would allow them to take games into Western Australia, Victoria and NSW in January.

However, restrictions on movement mean there will still likely be matches at neutral venues in the second half of the season and the location of the tournament decider could be announced well ahead of time, with the MCG a possibility.

The Boxing Day Test between Australia and India is set to be the first major sporting event in Victoria's capital since the state's devastating second wave of COVID-19, with up to 25,000 fans expected to be in attendance.

That cap on crowd sizes could be even higher by the time the BBL Final is held on February 6 and locking in a decider at the MCG soon to allow for weeks of promotion and ticket sales is an appealing proposition.

"It comes up in our planning every year about whether you lock in a venue (early)," said CA's Head of the Big Bash Leagues, Alistair Dobson.

"It allows you to do the right promotion, event planning and ticket sales.

"But the flipside is making sure you have really passionate home fans in the stadium.

"Ultimately having crowds being able to cheer on their home team for a home Final is still a really exciting prospect if travel and movement and safety allows us to later in the year.

"There's nothing specific around Victoria yet. But that said, a great stadium, a couple of big clubs and people in Victoria we know are really looking forward to the BBL coming back ... we'll tackle that when the time is right."

The venue for the BBL Final, which is typically the home ground of the highest-ranked team in the decider, is normally determined just days in advance, which makes marketing and promotion difficult.

The tournament decider has been held at a neutral venue once before; Manuka Oval in Canberra hosted the BBL|04 Final when most of Australia's major venues were unavailable due to the 2015 World Cup.

Dobson also confirmed a reserve day will be introduced for the Final this season after last summer's decider in Sydney was almost washed out.

Tasmanian officials have confirmed the crowds for matches in Hobart and Launceston to start the season will be capped at 50 per cent of capacity and Dobson is hopeful crowd sizes will increase as the season approaches and infection numbers continue to stabilise.

Last month, the Australian Football League grand final was held in front of 30,000 fans at the Gabba, which is 75 per cent of capacity.

"Things are trending in the right direction ... with the AFL grand final, they had a big crowd and that helps everyone learn how to manage crowds in a really complex and difficult environment," Dobson said.

"It's 25 to 50 per cent capacity (at the moment) and hopefully we can keep going up from there."

Dobson indicated that matches in early January will be held in Queensland and South Australia before the remainder of the season is split between Perth and the eastern hubs of Sydney and Melbourne.

"Our ambition and very strong hope is that we can get BBL matches to every market (and have) home games for every club over the course of the season," he said.

"As those border restrictions and movements become clearer almost daily, that allows us to lock that in with more confidence."