The ICC are set to announce a 34,000-seater pop-up facility about 30 miles east of New York City as one of venues for the much-anticipated 2024 T20 World Cup co-hosted by the USA and the West Indies. The facility will be erected in the Eisenhower Park spread across 930 acres in East Meadow, a hamlet on Long Island, about 30 miles east of Manhattan. It is understood that the venue will also play host to the marquee clash between India and Pakistan.
The announcement is set to come within months after the substantive talks between ICC and New York City officials fell through for the construction of a similar pop venue in Van Cortlandt Park in the borough of Bronx. The city officials were compelled to drop the plans for Bronx after some heavy resistance from some of the locals residing around the park and one of the cricket leagues that is based out of the same park. Bronx’s loss was Nassau County’s gain as the ICC proved to be quick on its feet to materialize negotiations with the Nassau County officials, the administrators of the Eisenhower Park.
There has been considerable clamor within the ICC to have cricket make headway in USA. The country provides a two-pronged appeal being the world’s biggest media market as well as the fastest-emerging cricket market around the globe. The USA media rights for ICC events are believed to be amongst the top 4 countries in terms of dollar value. The designation of USA as co-hosts for the T20 World Cup was one such affirmative action from the ICC.
However, the existing cricketing infrastructure in the US or the lack of it has always been a matter of great speculation and concern for the ICC. MLC did unveil its 15k-seater flagship stadium in Dallas for their inaugural season, but apart from the said facility and Central Broward Park near Miami, the country lacks another permanent floodlit state of the art cricket structure.
The Eisenhower Park agreement should alleviate much of ICC’s problems with respect to venues in the US. The ICC awarded about 20 games to the USA, which now looks likely to be distributed among the three facilities. Another MLC venue, the Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina is also believed to be in contention to host a few World Cup games. The facility, however, is devoid of any permanent structure or practice facilities.
The ICC earlier announced the 20-team World Cup will commence on June 4 and conclude on June 30. With the second edition of the MLC tentatively scheduled in July, there is every possibility the MLC may sweep in to leverage the newly-laid infrastructure at Eisenhower Park and make the park the new temporary home for the MI New York.