Surrey’s ‘work from Oval’ initiative tops three figures for Leicestershire game

More than 100 fans took advantage of Surrey’s first ‘work from Oval’ week, which encourages home workers to watch top-flight cricket at the stadium while using it as an office.

The Brown Caps have opened the doors to remote employees this season, installing desks in sections of the terraces and upgrading to ultra-fast wifi at the ground.

Uptake topped three figures for the drawn game against Leicestershire, which concluded on Monday, and the initiative will continue for all home games this summer. Surrey have also reported a membership spike of five per cent in the 22-25 age category.

Surrey chief executive Steve Elworthy said: “We’re determined to continue to grow the audience for the Rothesay County Championship and the team have been working on ways to try and encourage more people to come through the gates this year.

“We know that many fans treat the Kia Oval as their second home and have been using the ground to ‘work from Oval’ for many years and we wanted to encourage others to come along as well.”

The south London club has built its attendance during a period of on-field success that saw a hat-trick of championship titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and attracted over 84,000 supporters through the turnstiles as they were pipped by Nottinghamshire last year – almost treble their pre-Covid crowd from 2019.

Surrey’s next home game, against Essex, runs from April 24-27.