Women's Big Bash League Season Three Opens With Record Crowds, TV Audience

Records were broken as the third season of the Women's Big Bash League opened across the weekend. A crowd of more than 8,726 was at the North Sydney Oval for four of the six matches of the weekend, with the remaining two being held at Glenelg's Gliderol Stadium. The opening weekend also proved popular with TV audiences who watched the four matches live on Network Ten's primary channel. The Sydney Sixers and Melbourne Stars match attracted an average audience of 422,500 viewers, peaking at 629,000. That was a 59% increase on the season two average, making it the biggest average audience for a regular WBBL match. The first match televised on Saturday, between the Sydney Thunder and the Melbourne Renegades, saw an average national audience of 278,500, peaking at 426,000. Overall, the first day average audience of 350,500 represented a 46.6% increase on the season average last year (WBBL).