Work underway to entice Barmy Army from England to Perth in November 2025 to smash crowd record at Ashes

Work is underway to entice a 5000-strong Barmy Army from England to Perth in November, with Tourism Minister Rita Saffioti and cricket bosses vowing to smash the crowd record at next year’s Ashes series opener. With debate ongoing about the future of the WA Day public holiday, and whether it should be in November instead of the wetter June, WA cricket bosses have backed the move to coincide with the first Test — with hopes of locking Perth in as the home of the start of summer. As the final wicket of Alex Carey fell on Monday afternoon after a stand against a dominant Indian bowling attack, focus turned to Perth’s hosting of next year’s Ashes series with a firm goal of smashing the existing WA Test record of 103,000 as part of the 2006 Ashes Test, The official crowd figure of 6627 on Monday lifted the total attendance for the four days of the Test match against India to 96,463 — a new record for a cricket match at Optus. A mega-day of activity around the stadium on Sunday, including the rescheduled WA Day Festival, drew crowds of more than 110,000 to the Burswood Peninsula, organisers said. The push to beat the record led new WA Cricket Association chief executive John Stephenson to join calls for the WA Day public holiday to be shifted to November. “Breaking crowd records in both the West Test and the WBBL at the WACA Ground on night two, we know there is a strong appetite for this festival style of cricket in Perth, next year will be huge with the Ashes,” Mr Stephenson said. “We would love to see the State Government move the WA Day public holiday to the Friday before the event — Day 1 of West Test. “That would be an incredible way to kick off summer in Perth and an Ashes series.” Speaking at the WA Day Festival on Sunday, Premier Roger Cook admitted he was open to realigning WA’s public holiday calendar to other States, and taking advantage of November’s sunnier weather. Cricket Australia executive general manager for events and operates Joel Morrison described Perth’s turnout to the four-day Test as a “huge success” “Bringing the West Test Summer Fest, WBBL and WA Day all into a festival of cricket and culture was incredible to see, and we’re already planning on how to make it bigger next year,” he said. “We are aiming for over 45,000 attendees on both days one and two, and to smash WA’s Test match total attendance record next year during the Ashes.” The ambitious crowed target has been backed by the State Government, with Ms Saffioti saying work would start soon on how to attract thousands of UK visitors for the Test. WA has secured the first Test of the summer for the next two years, including against England and then against New Zealand in 2026. In the lead up to The West Test, the State Government provided figures indicating thousands of overseas travellers had flown to Perth for the event. “We should set ourselves a stretch target, if we get 5000 (of overseas travellers) for example, that’d be a great number. That’s just something I would love to secure, but it does mean working now, working early,” Ms Saffioti said. “We’ve got a year to prepare and we’re very much looking at how we can target our marketing, our advertising for the very big travelling contingent from England. “We are going to work really hard across Tourism and across with Cricket Australia, and also through the WACA about how we can tailor products to the Barmy Army to make sure they come to Perth and they come early and get to experience a beautiful State.” Pointing to low numbers on day four of the Test against India Ms Saffioti joked that after 17 wickets fell on Friday, some people may have thought the match would have finished on Sunday. Perth Stadium’s sea of blue, as well as orange and green, amid the poor Australian performance, often lead to Indian fans being more vocal, with Ms Saffioti saying the balanced crowd contributed to the atmosphere. “We’re really, really happy with the crowd, and it’s been a great atmosphere. It’s been a buzz around the stadium and all the entire precinct. It’s been a really excellent feeling around the around the ground,” she said.

Work underway to entice Barmy Army from England to Perth in November 2025 to smash crowd record at Ashes

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