ICC T20 World Cup 2024: A baseball stadium being considered as potential venue in USA?
The ICC T20 World Cup 2024 will be jointly hosted by West Indies and the USA. Meanwhile, ICC could consider Oakland Coliseum a potential venue for the tournament.
FollowThe 2024 ICC T20 World Cup will be one of a kind. It will be the first such tournament co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA). While there are venues aplenty in the Caribbean, the same cannot be said for the US. As of now, the only International Cricket Council (ICC) approved ground in the US happens to be the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida. The ICC is on the hunt for a second venue in the country. At the same time, Major League Baseball's (MLB's) Oakland Athletics' home ground, the Oakland Coliseum, is being considered a potential venue for the global event.
As per ESPNCricinfo, Geoff Allardice (ICC CEO) and Will Glenwright (Development Head) travelled to California to meet met with USA Cricket officials. The Coliseum lacks many luxury amenities, as per the ICC guidelines. However, the two things that have attracted its attention are its location in East Bay of northern California, somewhat north of Silicon Valley, with some cricket grassroots level clubs and a cricket-watching audience. In contrast, it has a capacity of 53,000 spectators.
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Among the other potential cricket venues in the USA, the capacity seems to be an issue. As follows: Church Street Park (Morrisville, North Carolina) - 4,000; Lauderhill, Florida and Pearland, Texas - 10,000 (15,000-20,000 temporary expansion). Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston and AirHogs Stadium in Dallas are yet to open and acquire ICC's international status formally.
On the other hand, there could be some logistical limitations at the Coliseum. It cannot hold the India-Pakistan clash due to its pacific timezone, which means India's 8 PM start time could mean a 7.30 AM start in Oakland. However, it can easily hold the England-Australia clash, which would suit the United Kingdom's (UK's) standard time.
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Also, there could be a scheduling conflict, with June falling during the middle of the MLB season. Thus, if the Athletics and MLB could agree on a 10-14 days road trip for the Athletics, it would give enough time to the ICC to prepare the venue, including the drop-in pitches, while two-three matches can be held at this time.
In 2015, three baseball fields were used for the Cricket All-Stars T20 tournament, headlined by Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne. The matches were held at the Citi Field (New York), Minute Maid Par (Houston) and Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles). Although the big seating capacity of the stadiums drew fans, some of the square boundaries happened to be extremely small due to the venues being conventional baseball stadiums.
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As for the Coliseum, its design is somewhat similar to baseball and football. Thus the square boundaries could be about the ICC's minimum limit of 55 meters. An exception can be made if the edge falls short at a specific area after thorough inspection, like Auckland's Eden Park. Meanwhile, authorities plan to host some exhibition matches at the venue before taking the final call.
