Napier has the distinction of being New Zealand’s top and bottom cricket watching area after the pool rounds of the Cricket World Cup, the latest numbers from Statistics New Zealand show.
Through the first weeks of the Cricket World Cup, Statistics NZ has been looking at crowd numbers and then calculating them as a percentage of the local population.
Napier’s weekend game between the West Indies and the United Arab Emirates was attended by 1221 people. Compared to the estimated 132,129 people living within 50km of McLean Park, that means just under 1% of the population was represented at the ground, the lowest of any of the games in New Zealand.
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But with 10,022 people at Napier’s big game between New Zealand and Afghanistan on March 8, McLean Park is top of the table with 7.59% of the population, just ahead of the New Zealand-England game in Wellington on 20 February, where 30,148 people attended, equivalent to 7.14% of the local population.
The common factor in the two top-of-the-table games is New Zealand playing, with Nelson’s game between the West Indies and Ireland on 16 February being the best attended game not featuring the Black Caps.
The local populations used in the chart are the usually resident population living within 50km of each ground.
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Napier both top and bottom for cricket crowds
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