A $70m park has opened in southern Florida – the most expensive new park in the state – including a 5,000 seater cricket ground, the first of its kind in the United States.
"It was just a vacant lot, nothing here," Bill Kristen, the county parks and recreation project manager, told sun-sentinel.com. "I think everybody realized the area had to be revitalised."
The Central Broward Regional Park opens officially tomorrow, where local residents will watch exhibition matches for football, cricket and American football
Cost overruns almost killed the project in 2006. The contractor sought as much as $15.3 million more than the $35.5 million the county originally agreed to pay for construction. But cost-saving alterations, such as building a vehicle storage garage underneath the bleachers, helped lower the cost overruns. The county in December agreed to pay the remaining $7.5 million, and work resumed. In total, the county paid about $70 million for land and construction, the most it has paid to open a park, said Bob Harbin, Broward park director.
Some black Americans opposed the park, saying it was too Caribbean-focused. And one housing development planned for north of the park, St. James Luxury Town Homes, was canceled because of the soft real estate market. Construction of Georgetown Homes has slowed for the same reason.
Read the full story (and watch a video of the park) at their website.
Comments
Posted by: Prakash at November 9, 2007 3:15 PM
Hello,
I live in North Carolina. I am Glad that there is finally a dedicated cricket field. I went to the link that you posted and read the user comments there and most of them dis-agree with the cricket stadium. All they want is a American Football ground!. Please, ICC or whoever is managing cricket in the US [Even cricinfo can help!], can you make sure that this investment does not go waste and we have some actual macthes here? We need some cricket on television too for the game to be popular in USA.
Thanks,
Prakash
Posted by: Asif Ahmad at November 9, 2007 5:53 PM
I think this is great news. You are right Parakash, we need to have some games there. I reside in California and Southern California does have dedicated cricket grounds which have been utilized to their full extent and that is the reason we are able to keep those grounds dedicated to cricket. May be other states can have similar grounds for good clean cricket.
Posted by: Tim Johnson at November 9, 2007 6:26 PM
Bear in mind this IS NOT a dedicated cricket ground. Remains to be seen how much cricket will actually be played. Once the local soccer moms and footballers discover it cricket might find itself having a hard time booking time at the thing, not to mention maintaining a quality pitch.
Posted by: andrewkeogh at November 9, 2007 6:36 PM
I looked at the comments too - apart from the usual lame jokes about insects you get from Americans when cricket is mentioned, many of the comments seemed underpinned by hostility to Jamaican immigrants. I posted my own comment which was to the effect that, rather than simply treating the place as an exhibition centre for expats/tourists and TV cash cow why not do what Compton Cricket Club does in south-central Los Angeles? That would draw the sting of a lot of the criticism.
Posted by: andrewkeogh at November 9, 2007 11:37 PM
I had another look at the commnts in the Sun-Sentinel after my last posting and have to add a further comment 'underpinned by hostility to Jamaican immigrants' as I originally put it, doesn't begin to describe some of the postings - crude, hate filled bile. Take a look if you can stomach them.
Posted by: fitz fraser at November 10, 2007 12:15 AM
It is long overdue, and I agree with Prakash that television would greatly popularise cricket in the US. Cricket is the most expensive game to watch on TV. Why? every other game is free on TV.
Posted by: Graham at November 10, 2007 12:25 AM
I heard that the people who play Aussie Rules in the US (yeah, there's actually quite a few who do) were looking into the likelihood of playing there as well, as the oval shape is perfect.
Posted by: Gavin Stevenson at November 10, 2007 4:18 AM
If Americans actually knew that they were part of the first International match recorded (v Canada in 1844) they might have a different view of cricket. They love to tell the world that they are innovators. They may be a little slow at picking up on the intricacies of the game at first class and Test level, but the premature ejaculation of Twenty20 and the slower release of limited overs cricket is obviously the way to go. Baseball can take just as long as a Twenty20 or limited overs match.
Posted by: Sadick at November 11, 2007 5:48 PM
"And finally there is one" I am very happy that the Broward County has finally done it.I am also pretty optimistic about the future for cricket here in South Florida.As Gavin rightly said the Twenty20 version of cricket is about the same time and carries the same excitement as baseball and besides curious Americans and others will now have a better facility to sit and enjoy a game be it Cricket or soccer. Lets us all support the park for its efforts.
I am rather exited to see the facility at the central broward regional park. I hoping it may be use to play and improve the game of cricket in every level . It is certainly the best facility for this purpose I seen in the US. Let's maintain and keep it to a high level.
Posted by: Imran Awan at November 14, 2007 5:57 PM
I have been playing in USA Team for over 10 years and this is the best news I ever heard about the future of cricket in USA.
Hopefully we can host other countries to come and play with us here.
Posted by: Murli Gagwani at November 20, 2007 7:52 PM
This is great news! Hopefully it would be utilized as intended. I am a cricket fan and agree with Imran's comments. This would popularize the game in this country. My be T20 to start with.
Web Feeds
