Riverway Stadium has an edge to fill Qld’s cricket venue void, says Townsville mayor

The big crowds and quality cricket pitch on show at Riverway Stadium during the ODI series will give Townsville an edge drawing more games here while The Gabba is out of action, says Mayor Jenny Hill. See the gallery >>>

The big crowds and quality cricket pitch on show at Riverway Stadium during the One Day International (ODI) series will give Townsville an edge drawing more games here while the Gabba is out of action, says Mayor Jenny Hill.

The eyes of the nation were on Townsville when a huge summer of cricket kicked off in Riverway Stadium with Australia taking on Zimbabwe in three ODIs last week.

Townsville’s Mayor hailed the event a success for the city, with crowd numbers exceeding 6000 across the three games.

She believes the event has put Townsville in a prime position to host more big cricket games in the future, while the Gabba in Brisbane will be out of action for up to four years while it gets redeveloped.

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“With the Gabba being closed, there are opportunities for us to work with Queensland Cricket and Cricket Australia to bring more content,” she said.

“The (council) staff will obviously be talking to them about the opportunities, but I think what the Australia and Zimbabwe series showed, firstly we can draw a good crowd of locals and secondly the standard of the wicket was so good.

“I doubt that anywhere outside of Brisbane is at the same standard our field is in.

“It gives us the edge.”

Ms Hill said she needed to be assured more “content” was coming to Townsville before she could confidently justify funding the installation of broadcast-quality lighting at Riverway Stadium.

The previous Coalition Government made a $5M election promise to fund the new lights before being defeated by Labor at the last federal election.

“The opportunity of lighting Riverway is always on the cards, but it’s not the $5 million that’s been bandied about — its quite a bit more than that,” Ms Hill said.

“The last week, with the ODI, has been really good, but it’s about what content can we bring up here to justify such an enormous expense for one oval.”

Queensland Cricket’s North Queensland cricket manager Antony Stewart said the ODI series showed Townsville was capable of hosting high-quality, world-class sport.

“All the feedback we had about the facilities and the surface was positive,” Mr Stewart said.

“The players didn’t question it.

“Although we didn’t have high-scoring games, there were plenty of fours and sixes for the fans to enjoy.

“The fans certainly got plenty out of it and had a great time.

“To see the kids running around getting autographs from all their favourite players was great.”

Baiden Kennedy was among more than 2000 cricket fans who packed into Riverway for the third ODI on Saturday.

“It was great that the boys and I were able to come out and enjoy an international cricket match right here in Townsville,” he said.

Townsville Enterprise’s director of visitor economy and marketing, Lisa Woolfe, said international cricket combined with other big sporting events like the NRL, sailing and netball generate millions of dollars into the regional economy.

“We know that events of this scale draw visitors from across the nation and the globe and that these visitors support our local economy through our accommodation, dining, retail, tourism offerings,” she said.

Originally published as Riverway Stadium has an edge to fill Qld’s cricket venue void, says Townsville mayor