Durham Cricket recorded their highest T20 attendance figure outside of a Yorkshire Vikings fixture last Friday (July 19) as more than 6000 supporters attended Emirates Riverside for Durham’s clash with Northants Steelbacks.
The club has targeted their 2019 T20 campaign to be their highest in history having seen a consistent rise in attendances since 2016 and last year’s Vitality Blast figures having surpassed 30,000 purchasers.
Friday’s opening fixture saw Durham get off to a positive start in the tournament and beat the Steelback’s in front of a packed Don Robson and County Durham stand.
England World Cup Winners Ben Stokes and Mark Wood were in attendance and were presented to the Ds supporters and media before the game, with both players staying to sign autographs and pose for selfies at the end of the match for almost two hours.
Durham Cricket, Chief Executive, Tim Bostock, said: “We were delighted to see such a big crowd for our opening game and in typical north east fashion we didn’t let the somewhat disappointing weather bother us.
“We’re still very much developing our fanbase at Durham but we’re confident that a number of initiatives that we’ve implemented over the last few years are having a very positive impact on our sales and we’re particularly pleased with the number of young cricket fans and families attending our games.
“We’re aware that this was only the first game of our Blast season but now that we’ve started strongly, we will be looking to achieve a record overall attendance for this summer’s campaign and hope the majority of attendees decide to return for our remaining fixtures.”
The D’s next home fixture is on Wednesday, July 31 against Leicestershire Foxes, swiftly followed by our Emirates Day game against Lancashire Lightning two days later (Friday August 2).