KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Caribbean Premier League organisers say the initial response to ticket sales for the Florida leg of the Twenty20 tournament have been encouraging and point to a successful hosting of the matches there.
Six games in the CPL will be played at the Lauderhill Stadium in Fort Lauderdale from July 28-31, marking the first time fixtures have been carded outside of the Caribbean region.
“What’s interesting is that we went on sale with tickets [approximately two weeks ago] and already we’ve sold close to 5,000 tickets. That’s a phenomenal achievement in a short space of time,” CPL’s chief operating officer, Pete Russell, told the Observer newspaper here.
“We know there is an audience there, and on top of that there are a lot of cricket-loving fans who don’t get to see international players very often, if at all.”
The fourth edition of the CPL will run from June 29 to August six, with matches scheduled for Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, along with Florida.
All six franchises will feature during the four-day period in Florida, with Guyana Amazon Warriors and Barbados Tridents raising the curtain on that leg, in a repeat of the 2014 final.
Russell said organisers were anticipating a strong response to the games, especially with a large West Indian community living in Florida.
“I think it’s fantastic. We know there’s a huge fan base in America, and more importantly, there’s a huge Jamaican following in Fort Lauderdale and the surroundings,” Russell said.
“We’re very excited about the prospects of playing there.”