New York City is getting ready to host a crucial cricket match between India and Pakistan as part of the 2024 T20 World Cup, which will be held in the West Indies and the USA.
To prepare for this event, a new stadium is being built in Eisenhower Park, located about 30 miles east of New York City. This stadium will cover an impressive 930 acres in East Meadow.
Initially, the International Cricket Council (ICC) had planned to build a similar stadium in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. However, local residents and a cricket league operating in the park strongly opposed the idea. As a result, the ICC decided to abandon that project and instead entered into negotiations with Nassau County, which oversees Eisenhower Park, and they successfully agreed on this new location.
This development will increase the number of high-quality cricket facilities with floodlights in the USA to three. Currently, there’s a 15,000-seat stadium in Dallas used for Major League Cricket’s inaugural season and Central Broward Park in Miami.
The ICC is prioritizing the successful hosting of the 20 matches scheduled to be played in the USA during the 2024 T20 World Cup. Additionally, with the possibility of Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Olympics, the importance of this cricket event is heightened. A successful T20 World Cup could also encourage the International Olympic Committee to consider including cricket as one of the sports in the upcoming Olympics.
The USA is a massive sports market, and even though its international cricket team is relatively new and its cricket league system is just a few years old, the media rights for ICC tournaments in the USA are among the most valuable globally.
