Sports marketing guru Migala sold on Oz Big Bash concept after watching Ashes

BRISBANE - American sports marketing guru Dan Migala is convinced the Twenty20 Big Bash concept can be a booming success after being suitably immersed by the Super Bowl-style atmosphere of an Ashes Test.

“If I’d been blindfolded and you hadn’t told me where I was, I could easily have guessed I was at the Super Bowl or baseball’s World Series because of the atmosphere around me before that first ball of the series at the Gabba,” the Herald Sun quoted Migala, as saying after he had watched the second day’s play here between Australia and England.

“When you have a sporting contest as the heartbeat of a town and dare I say the country, you know the ingredients are there to make the Big Bash a real success. The analogy I would choose is taking a classic book and rewriting it as a screenplay to put it on the big screen,” he added.

“Cricket’s core will still be there, but the Big Bash will reach a whole new audience,” Migala said.

A two-day workshop this week with state cricket bosses and marketing managers whipped Migala’s renowned creative juices into the Big Bash ideas of harnessing overseas stars, private ownership and a new fan following.

It was Migala who won accolades from the sports marketing community for pushing the Chicago White Sox to switch their game starts to 7.11 p.m. to capture 7-Eleven as a sponsor which the baseball club duly did.

The Chicago native’s Wednesday visit to inspect the revamp that is transforming tired old Carrara Stadium and a chat to Big Bash team backers at the Gold Coast is also a strong indicator that the coastal strip is in the box seat to secure one of the eight city-based franchises for the 2011-12 launch plan. (ANI)