Victoria Park: a test venue for Auckland?

EXCLUSIVE: Wynyard Point consortium advance mini-Melbourne concept near CBD

The Victoria Park cricket concept as viewed from a new grandstand.

A proposal to transform Auckland’s Victoria Park into an international cricket venue has created a buzz among the city’s clubs and has caught the eye of one of the most powerful men in world cricket.

As the test series against Australia continues this week in front of full houses at bespoke test venues in Wellington and Christchurch, Aucklanders are forced to lament a situation that saw the last of Eden Park’s 50 tests played in 2018, with just two tests at the ground in the past decade.

The Victoria Park plan is the work of the group behind the pitch for the 55,000-seater Wynyard Point Stadium and includes drawings by global stadia architectural firm Populous, the company behind projects such as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Las Vegas’ Sphere and the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, and backing from ASM Global, which manages more than 350 sporting venues worldwide.

International Cricket Council chairman Greg Barclay said any plan to build a venue capable of hosting white- and red-ball cricket in central Auckland should be embraced by the sport’s leaders.

“The country’s biggest city needs a cricket stadium and it needs it to be done properly,” Barclay, who was New Zealand Cricket chairman when a proposal to repurpose Western Springs as a cricket stadium was stymied, said. “It can’t be a default option.”