Our Bash hits every code for six

Sydney Thunder's Dave Warner belts a six against the Thunder in the Big Bash League. Picture: Mark Evans Source: Mark Evans / News Limited

SYDNEY'S Big Bash franchises are selling themselves as the most popular sporting teams in town and have the numbers to prove it.

Despite being considered peripheral to the football codes the Big Bash's first year of free to air television on Channel Ten saw the Sixers and Thunder outstrip every other domestic team in Australia's biggest city.

The Sixers had an average audience of 967,774 and the Thunder 886,133 followed by the Rabbitohs (783,597) and Swans (766,077).

The most remarkable comparison is between new Western Sydney teams the Thunder and the Wanderers.

While they have similar average crowds of about 14,500 the Thunder have more than seven times the viewing audience.

Yet the hype and passion surrounding the Wanderers after successive A League Grand Finals is a far cry from the Thunder, who have undergone a major revamp after winning just two matches in three seasons.

Average Big Bash audiences of more than 930,000 across the eight teams have allowed some sides to double and even triple the value of their major sponsorship to more than $500,000 a season.

Independent valuations by the Sixers and the Thunder found their overall exposure is now worth $4 million in sponsorship dollars.

Brett Lee celebrates a wicket for the Sydney Sixers. Picture: Mark Evans Source: News Limited

Sixers chief executive Dom Remond admits sponsors are incredulous when told of the Big Bash's audience domination.

"We have the biggest average audience across any team in Sydney, which is fantastic," Remond told The Daily Telegraph.

"The numbers we did on free to air last year were very significant.

"We need to get out into the market and not be shy with the achievements that we've made.

"One of the challenges we have is to get out there and tell everyone that cricket really is Australia's favourite sport from Test level down to the Big Bash.

"They (sponsors) find it hard to believe until you show them the facts and data. The rationale makes sense where you're telling them that all our games are pretty much prime time on free to air tv."

The Thunder are looking for a new major sponsor at a significantly increased amount.

"That's the story we're telling, we're getting an average audience of around 900,000 with national reach in a peak viewing time," Thunder chief executive Nick Cummins said.

"Anyone who experienced Big Bash last summer it became compulsory viewing. As you get home each night you turn the TV on so we got some really good traction."

The Sixers have just resigned their major sponsor iiNet for another three years on a much later figure.

"They see the phenomenal numbers on free to air. What's big for them is that being a Perth-based company they were gaining brand awareness in the Sydney market and their data shows a significant increase in brand awareness which is important to them," Remond said

"More importantly they saw an increase in plan sales and subscription sales to their internet service.

"They have upped their spend in line with increased ratings."

"We were selling into a market where we thought average ratings would be about 500,000 per game but over average ratings for the Sixers were almost double."

Sydney teams average TV audiences

Team Total

Sixers 967,774

Thunder 886,133

Rabbitohs 783,597

Swans 766,077

Roosters 692,695

GWS Giants 315,600

Sydney FC 127,906

Wanderers 125,103

Waratahs 108,854

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