A new challenge awaits the AFL and its 19th club, with newly appointed Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg expressing concerns about the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium design and its fixed roof.
The Age reports that Greenberg and Cricket Tasmania chief executive Dominic Baker co-signed a letter to the Tasmanian government declaring that the current roof design would lead to “unacceptable” playing conditions, venue operations and broadcast quality for any form of cricket being played in daylight.
The submission centres on shadows cast on the cricket pitch during daylight hours in summer because of the roof’s proposed “grid-like” roof pattern. They claim this would make the stadium unsuitable for hosting Test matches and potentially challenging for ODI and T20 fixtures.
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Tasmania’s new proposed stadium, from Cox Architecture. newscorp
The cricketing bodies have suggested proceeding with a design option without a roof or one that has a retractable roof.
The AFL has listed the construction of a new, roofed stadium in inner-city Hobart as a condition for granting a Tasmanian team a licence to enter the league in 2028.
If cricket fixtures were not to be played because of the current roof design, it would affect the business model of the stadium and the Tasmanian government’s economic modelling for the stadium’s benefits.
Cricket Australia and Cricket Tasmania reportedly wish to stay at Bellerive Oval rather than moving to the new stadium unless the concerns raised are acted upon.
“There are plenty of grounds, the Gabba is one where the pitch is sometimes half in the shade and half in the sun,” Nine’s chief AFL reporter Tom Morris told Footy Classified.
“Under this design, you would have lots of little shady bits and lots of little sunny bits, which becomes a health and safety issue.
“It’s a big issue for the AFL because, as we know, no roofed stadium, no team. So this is something they’ve got to work through.”
In the submission, the cricketing bodies rejected proposed remedies from the Macquarie Point Development Corporation as “unworkable” and advocated for an alternate solution if the shadow issues cannot be resolved.
