Address | 1899 Park Boulevard East Meadow, New York 11554 U.S. |
---|---|
Public transit | Westbury[1] NICE: n70 (Hempstead Tpke at East Meadow Plaza)[2] |
Operator | T20 World Cup USA, Inc. |
Seating type | Stadium seating |
Capacity | 34,000 |
Surface | Kentucky bluegrass |
Construction | |
Architect | Populous |
Builder |
|
Ground information | |
Tenants | 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup |
End names | |
n/a n/a | |
International information | |
As of 26 January 2024 Source: Cricinfo |
Nassau County International Cricket Stadium is a cricket ground that was built on the grounds of Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York, in Nassau County on Long Island.
It is a modular stadium which serves as a temporary venue for the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, during which it will host eight group stage matches. Following the tournament, the modular architecture will be removed, leaving only the field. The venue will be overseen by T20 World Cup USA—the host committee representing matches hosted in the United States during the tournament.[3]
In November 2021, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup would be played in the West Indies and the United States.[4] A joint bid was submitted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket following two years of preparation, forming part of a strategic partnership between the two associations.[5][6]
In July 2023, the ICC shortlisted four venues in the United States, which included Lauderhill, Florida (Central Broward Park), Morrisville, North Carolina (Church Street Park), Grand Prairie, Texas (Grand Prairie Stadium), and a temporary stadium at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York City.[7] The proposed site was criticized by Bronx residents; a group known as the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance cited potential ecological impact, and concerns over the tournament preventing public access to the park for an extended period.[8][9]
On September 22, 2023, the ICC announced that the three U.S. tournament sites would be Lauderhill, Grand Prairie, and a temporary, 34,000-seat stadium at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York on Long Island.[10][11][12]
The need for a temporary stadium was necessitated by the relative lack of cricket stadiums in the United States, and especially in the New York metropolitan area—the United States' most populous region;[3][13] cricket had usually been considered a niche, international sport, with its most loyal fanbases coming from the diaspora of regions (particularly South Asia) where the sport is mainstream. A domestic T20 league—Major League Cricket—held its inaugural season in 2023.[14] The Nassau County hamlet of Hicksville, New York also has a significant and rapidly growing South Asian population, and has been described as a "hub" of the region's Indian-American community.[15][16][17]
Among the matches that will be hosted by the stadium will be a group stage match between India and Pakistan,[18] one of the most significant international rivalries in cricket.[19] Nassau County will receive an estimated US$2.7 million in direct revenue from the tournament, which would leave the Eisenhower Park with a legacy of permanent improvements to host large cricket tournaments henceforth.[20][21]
The stadium's design was unveiled by the ICC on January 17, 2024, with construction beginning that week. Designed by Populous, it will utilize a modular architecture, constructed by Arena Event Services, and reuse grandstands that had previously been deployed for events such as golf tournaments and Formula One's Las Vegas Grand Prix.[22][23][13] The modular structures include grandstands, will include facilities for players and the media, and hospitality boxes.[24]
The stadium's outfield, drainage, and pitch construction were overseen by The LandTek Group—a company that has worked on playing surfaces for New York's Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, and various NFL stadiums. The outfield uses Kentucky bluegrass, and the drop-in pitch uses Tahoma bermudagrass surfaces prepared in Florida at LTG Sports Turf One, in consultation with the Adelaide Oval's head groundskeeper Damian Hough. The pitches posed particular challenges due to the limited timeframe, and the logstical aspects of the construction process; six of the ten trays needed to be shipped from Adelaide, the grass had to be grown in Florida's warmer climate due to New York's cold winter, and the pitches will have to be transported by semi-trailers with blankets to protect the grass and soil from wind and the different climate conditions along the East Coast. Hough remarked that "I've never moved a pitch further than from Adelaide Oval to Karen Rolton Oval, so moving them for two days on a fleet of semi-trailers certainly throws up a few different issues."[25][3]
By late-April 2024, the outfield grass had been laid, preparations were being made for the installation of the turf, and most of the grandstands had been installed.[24] The stadium was inaugurated by Jamaican sprinter and tournament ambassador Usain Bolt on May 15;[26] as test events, the stadium will host "community cricket events" in late-May, followed by a pre-tournament warmup match between Bangladesh and India on June 1.[24][26] It will host its first tournament match on June 3, between South Africa and Sri Lanka.[13][27] Following the tournament, the stands and modular infrastructure will be taken down by the end of July, leaving the cricket ground intact. The natural grass pitch will be replaced by artificial turf to ease maintenance.[13][3]
Despite the short turnaround time between completion and its first match, ICC head of events Chris Tetley stated that he was confident in the project due to his trust in the companies involved, and that warm-up events would allow the organizers to "know from an operational perspective how all of the functional teams that will come together to run the stadium need to interact on an event day with people coming through the turnstiles."[13] ESPNcricinfo observed that the Nassau County stadium would be the first venue to have ever hosted an ICC event without having previously hosted an international match beforehand.[13]
Main article: 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup |