CARDIFF | Sophia Gardens Redevelopment | 16,000 | U/C

The problem with English cricket is we are going to have around 10 stadiums that all just qualify for test cricket status, Sophia Gardens is one of them, and is simply to small host an ashes game, it is also the wettest ground on the county circuit in terms of average rainfall which is certainly not good.

We are left with only 2 stadiums that are actually world class big venues, The Oval, and Lords and even they are half the size of the likes of SCG.

annual rainfall shpanial shpainfall. Thats a weak argument. It's not a 'problem' to have ten tests status stadiums. It is a good thing! Its hard to argue against the English and Wales Cricket Board playing the odd game in wales in my opinion.

What I mean is that someone who doesnt know cricket, and may be used to football, Baseball, US football etc sized stadiums would think that 15,,000+ is tiny, but the truth is that this amount is large enough to host big international cricket games.

Put bluntly a 15,000 capacity cricket ground in the UK is equal in prestige and importance to a 50,000 football ground.

JamesWales said:

What I mean is that someone who doesnt know cricket, and may be used to football, Baseball, US football etc sized stadiums would think that 15,,000+ is tiny, but the truth is that this amount is large enough to host big international cricket games.

Put bluntly a 15,000 capacity cricket ground in the UK is equal in prestige and importance to a 50,000 football ground.

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Forgive me, but won't Sofia Gardens be the joint smallest British test match venue?

arrrgggh!

Yes, although it will be slightly larger than Trent Bridge, but yeah pretty much joint smallest.

It's like Leipzigs stadium was the smallest at the 2006 world cup, but it was still big (for football), it was still significant, and it was still a world cup stadium!

The same way that with this development, the capacity of Sophia Gardens, will triple, and for the first time ever it will host an ashes test. It's not overtaking Lords or the Oval, but the New Anfield wont overtake Wembleys capacity, but it'll still be big!

Irwell said:

Forgive me, but won't Sofia Gardens be the joint smallest British test match venue?

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It will actually be slightly larger than the Riverside Ground unless Durham expand, but it will be smaller than the six older Test venues.

JamesWales said:

Yes, although it will be slightly larger than Trent Bridge, but yeah pretty much joint smallest.

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I was actually thinking of Riverside. From my understanding Trent Bridge is expanding to 17,500, which would make it larger.

JamesWales said:

The same way that with this development, the capacity of Sophia Gardens, will triple, and for the first time ever it will host an ashes test. It's not overtaking Lords or the Oval, but the New Anfield wont overtake Wembleys capacity, but it'll still be big!

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Fair point, I wasn't knocking the ground as it's a good facility, I was simply checking my facts.

Trent Bridge capacity is planned to be 20000 by 2011

http://www.nottsccc.co.uk/news/shownews.php?cid=41&scid=0&nid=209

Skid said:

Trent Bridge capacity is planned to be 20000 by 2011

http://www.nottsccc.co.uk/news/shownews.php?cid=41&scid=0&nid=209

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That's the eventual plan, but like it says, it's a phased development. If I remember rightly phase one will take it to 17,500.

Latest images are below. It's looking smart in my opinion, and the setting, 15 minutes walk from central station, next to a river in a lush park will make for a really nice test venue in years to come.

I think the blue seats look smart. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but aren't cricket seats nearly always white?

http://cricketarchive.com/Glamorgan/Gallery/0/347.html

JamesWales said:

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but aren't cricket seats nearly always white?

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They used to be, when cricket was only played with a red ball, but not these days. Headingley has blue seats everywhere but the South Stand and behind the bowler's arm at the other end, the new stand at The Oval has green seats, and most of the Australian grounds have coloured seats...

As far as i am concerned this is a complete waste of time. The now ex chairman on the ECB happened to be welsh when the controversial selection of the Ashes grounds took place!! Cricket isn't rolling in money and spending huge amounts of cash on grounds that aren't current Test ground is ridiculous. Hampshire, Kent, Glamorgan, Durham are in the process of planning for future expansion when we have already got enough test grounds in this country.

What will happen when the general public gets bored of the huge amount of international cricket that is currently palyed (11 one day interenationals against India!!!). The biggest problem cricket will start suffering soon is too much cricket (so why build more/bigger grounds)!!

It's 7 one dayers isn't it, not 11?

Anyway, I agree I don't really see things being to positive for the future of Sophia Garderns. After the Ashes and when the Rose Bowl and other grounds have been redeveloped, it will be difficult to justify going back to Cardiff very often.

I'm a Glamorgan fan and Glamorgan being a Welsh club has a huge dimension to it that other clubs don't have.

I can see in the future Wales following the path of Scotland and Ireland playing cricket as independant "countries".

Even as a county, Glamorgan has one of the biggest fan bases going and most importantly has a number of young players who are from comprehensives. Glamorgan's future is very bright unlike the other counties who have a poor membership base and sides packed with foreigners.

A couple of quite disapointing and narrow minded posts recently. How can developing a ground to test status possibly, ever, in anyones wildest dreams, be bad for cricket? I can assure you that GCCC have been working hard to promote cricket in Wales, their ground redevolopment is helping to connect them with new fans and the business community, and the ashes, and the test matches to follow will bring something new and exciting to what is often considered to be a staid and dull sport.

It's great that Sophia gardens is being redevloped. Great for cricket, great for Cardiff and great for the (lest we forget) England & Wales cricket board.

I sympathise with the views of the more established test grounds, who will now miss out on some games, but thats the way it is. Times change, and I know that whoever comes to Cardiff for the cricket will thoroughly enjoy the experience. Theres a lot of support for England (in cricket) in Wales, so it's only just that the odd game is played here.

Probably because although it will be used and filled for that one ashes test it will probably never be used for a test again and never come close to being filled for Glamorgan matches

Sorry but i think its a disgrace that Old trafford looses out to that