Fairgrounds could get cricket stadium by 2024

Proposed facility would be able to seat up to 15,000 fans and cost $50 million

Cricket fans may soon have a place to call home that could give Levi’s Stadium or the Chase Center a run for its money.

Santa Clara County and Major League Cricket have announced that they are in extensive negotiations for a “world-class” cricket stadium at the county’s fairgrounds in San Jose, the first of its kind in the region. The $50 million proposal, according to MLC spokesperson Tom Dunmore, would allow for up to 15,000 fans to watch a game. Dunmore said that his organization expects negotiations to finalize by the end of the year — and hopes the stadium can open by 2024.

“It’s a great location,” Dunmore said. “And we’re all excited to take the next steps here.”

The stadium would take up slightly less than a tenth of the 165-acre fairgrounds — and would be built on top of the existing parking lot that is across the street from Franklin Elementary School on Tully Road. The facility would be able to host world cup and international matches, Dunmore said, and will feature training facilities, luxury suites, concessions and an underground parking garage.

The county also plans to use the site for concerts, said Fairgrounds Executive Director Abraham Andrade, and a skybridge from the fair’s main grounds to the stadium is also in the works.

Cricket, which originated in England, is played with eleven players on each team on an oval field. Each team competes for runs by either hitting a ball with a bat outside of the field’s boundaries or when the two batters on the field trade places on the pitch. While the game hasn’t seen the same success in the U.S. compared to baseball, basketball and football, it is the most popular sport in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Major League Cricket’s Dunmore said Santa Clara County was chosen as a location for the stadium because of the fan base that already exists among the region’s extensive Southeast Asian population.

Major League Cricket, which was founded in 2019, is an up and coming American league that hopes to have its inaugural season in 2023 of six teams nationwide — with San Jose being the home of one of those teams. The league, which also plans to create an American national team that could compete against other countries, has already finalized plans on a stadium in Dallas that will start ground breaking in the coming weeks.

The county’s fairgrounds, located in the city’s Spartan Keyes neighborhood, is the site of the annual fair that’s been running since 1944 but has been canceled or scaled down over the last two years because of the pandemic. Also at the fairgrounds is 16 acres of affordable housing, a paintball arena, and the largest COVID-19 testing site in the county that serves thousands of residents daily. Housing advocates have long proposed that the site’s expansive undeveloped parts be used to tackle the area’s homelessness by building more housing.

Matt Mahan, a San Jose council member who has supported the use of the fairgrounds being used for transitional or low-cost housing, said that with the cricket stadium proposal, he is glad that the fairgrounds are at least getting used.

“I’m glad to see the county finally doing more with the fairgrounds,” he said. “It’s been underutilized for decades.”

But he added that the cricket stadium proposal and housing don’t have to be “mutually exclusive.”

“Less than 10 percent of the land (will go towards the stadium),” he said. “And there’s plenty of land left to use for transitional housing.”

Hersh Solanki, a resident from Cupertino and a self-described cricket fan who follows India’s national team, said that the stadium’s success hinges on just how many fans will show up.

“They got to get the viewership in the U.S. up,” he said about Major League Cricket. “I would say it is pretty strong (in the Bay Area), especially given the demographic of this area. Outside of the demographic, not too many people know about it.”

But overall, he said he is excited for the new stadium.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize how big the game is until they get into it,” Solanki said. “I think there’s this whole world that’s yet to be uncovered. And its super exciting when they do.”