Moving Newlands New Year Test could put cricket in a spin
There are many aspects of the Boxing Day Test match in Melbourne which make it remarkable, but top of the list is the size of the crowd and, obviously, the stadium which houses the spectators.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is an extraordinary sight, even for those who visit it regularly, and especially so when it is full with its capacity of 100,000. It fills and empties with unlikely speed too, wide pedestrian walkways leading to the city centre, six train platforms, tram stops and an endless stream of taxis.
It is often said that Melbournians are the most avid sports watchers in the world and would happily pay to watch (and bet on) two cockroaches running across a basketball court. Fortunately there is enough live sport all year round for that not to be necessary (though there is a pub which stages “roach racing” on Monday nights, complete with different colour stickers on the creatures’ backs.)
Not only is access to and from the MCG excellent but so are the facilities, from the cheapest seats to the most VIP. The security staff can be pedantic, but then, Australia can be a bit of a nanny state.
I once witnessed an obviously wealthy gentleman (Armani, Gucci and so on) refused entry to the members’ lounge because he was not wearing socks with his luxury deck shoes. He summoned a passing teenager and gave him $50 for his grubby, lime green socks. “Yeah, that looks better, doesn’t it?” he said to the nonplussed doorman on his way into the lounge.
The thing about crowds is that they attract more and more, like a snowball rolling down a hill. Most people who spot 20 people huddled about something in a shopping mall are inclined to wander over to see what the attraction is. And the same applies in reverse.
You see a sparsely attended stadium at a sporting event and the message it sends is that the product is of no great value. It’s the reason all sports organisations need bums on seats, not just for gate revenue.
Television directors and cameramen try hard to disguise empty seats because advertisers are reluctant to pay top dollar for a spectacle which is not worth watching live. And when they do have a regularly full venue, they should do everything possible to keep it that way.
Not only is the New Year Test match at Newlands, SA’s only regularly full stadium, it could sell twice as many tickets again for the first three days. So it was naturally a cause for great concern when Cricket SA said last week the fixture against England on January 3 2020 may be moved elsewhere because of the large development taking place at the Kelvin Grove end of the ground.
There are problems, without a doubt. The cavernous hole in the ground for underground parking will still be there by the time the fixture is played and safety is an obvious concern. The ground is so old that original plans showing water and sewerage pipes have been lost, so the engineers have in some cases been forced to dig on a trial-and-error basis.
It is a concern. When the building is completed in two years’ time it will provide the Western Province Cricket Association with a vital, yearround source of income, as well as some lucrative hospitality seating. But for the next two years the grass bank known as the “snake pit” will be lost and there will be no opportunity to erect temporary scaffold seating which will reduce the capacity from a possible 20,000 (as it was for the last England Test) to about 15,000.
Securing the construction site is one challenge but ensuring there is still a viable evacuation plan in the event of emergency is a greater one.
There are more than 20 health and safety certificates required before venues can be issued with a licence to host an event of Test match magnitude and, when a venue changes as much as Newlands has, most of them have to be reissued after an inspection.
Newlands is no MCG, but she is trying her best to grow up and keep pace with the modern world. The people have been coming to the New Year Test match since the first one was played on January 1, 1923 and, while access and transport may be less than ideal, the delights of Cape Town in holiday season offer more than adequate compensation.
More than 64,500 English supporters have already booked their flights and accommodation for the Test match and will not be shy in seeking compensation should the match be moved to the Wanderers. This is a time for Cricket SA to lead through support and reassurance and stamp out doubt about the country’s flagship event.