Major League Cricket (MLC) is breaking ground on a world-class cricket stadium in North Texas. Last month, the MLC announced that it secured $120 million to fund updates to a stadium in Grand Prairie (~25 minutes from downtown Fort Worth) as it prepares to transform the US cricket landscape and launch the country’s first-ever Twenty20 cricket league. Here’s what that means.
What is cricket?
The sport was created in England back in 1725 and is played widely across the world. Cricket is similar to baseball in that it’s a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Teams (made up of 11 players) can score runs by hitting the ball thrown by a player on the opposing team, across the boundary. If you need a better explainer of how to play (because we did) — watch here.
The style of cricket that will be played is called Twenty20 — one of the three current forms of cricket recognized as being at the highest international level by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Field of dreams 🏟️
The plan is to turn the old AirHogs minor league baseball stadium in Grand Prairie into a professional cricket oval this summer. The stadium (at 1600 Lone Star Pkwy.) was used between 2008-2020 by the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. The final season for the AirHogs was canceled due to the pandemic.
The revamped Grand Prairie Stadium will hold between 15,000-20,000 people (an addition of about 10,000+ seats) and feature luxury suites and premium amenities. It’s expected to host several cricket matches throughout the year with games by the MLC, minor league, and semi-pro + international clubs.
Once the stadium is complete in 2023, the venue will bid to host games at the 2024 Men’s World Cup — one of the biggest global events to be co-hosted by the US and the West Indies. It will also become the home base for the USA Cricket National team and feature a High Performance Center.
