Opinion: Gabba demoted after failing to move with the times

A SPORTS stadium is like a car, its “newness” fades quickly and it is soon overtaken by a better model. So it is with Brisbane’s iconic Gabba, writes Robert Craddock.

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THE trouble with sports stadiums is as soon as they are opened, they become old. They are like new cars. The minute you sit in them, they seem to depreciate in value, and you know in some faraway place someone is planning a model that will soon enough make your new baby seem as if it has sprouted grey whiskers.

This, essentially, is the story of the ground they left behind – the Gabba – which was yesterday dumped from its traditional slot as the host of the first Test of the summer.

Instead of hosting world No.1 side India, the Gabba will host the lesser drawing Sri Lankan team over the Australia Day weekend in a day-night Test in January next year.

It was a stinging comedown, but there was no sense of shock.

The crowd do the Mexican wave at the Ashes First Test at the Gabba last year.

The Gabba’s demotion to the No.5 cricket ground in Australia – behind Melbourne, Sydney, and recently renovated Adelaide and Perth, which all got India Tests – has been coming for a decade or more.

Back in 2005 the Gabba was like the sparkling new car being backed out of the showroom after a six-stage, 12-year, $129 million development took the ground capacity to 42,000.

It made Perth’s tiny, old-fashioned WACA ground and the dignified yet dated Adelaide Oval feel like your grandmother’s house.

But despite the additions of a pool and big replay screens in recent years, the Gabba has been stuck in quicksand for more than a decade, while recently renovated Adelaide – the best ground in Australia, in my opinion – and the new Optus Stadium in Perth motored past, expanding their capacities beyond 50,000.

The iconic Melbourne and Sydney cricket grounds have perennial ratings at the top of the pecking order.

A batsman cuts a lonely figure against a near-empty grandstand at an Australia-Sri Lanka Test at the Gabba.

In the pace-setting US sporting world, 12 new National Football League venues have been built in the past 16 years, as owners realise that anything but state-of-the-art comfort facilities is a major turn-off for fans.

It has taken the development of Perth and Adelaide for Brisbane to realise how outdated the Gabba really is in everything from seating comfort and women’s toilets to WiFi – or the lack of it – which is part of the stadium experience modern fans crave.

Even down the road at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast, you can order food from your seat in the grandstand.

A few months ago Queensland Cricket officials, rather than preach the virtues of the Adelaide Oval, flew Cross River Rail officials to the ground and showed them first-hand what a modern cricket ground should feel like.

The short walk from the city to the Adelaide Oval is so pleasant that England’s players, including veteran bowlers Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson, decided to boycott the team bus and walk to the ground with the fans during last summer’s Ashes Test.

The Gabba has been the epicentre of Brisbane cricket and AFL culture for decades.

The cluttered roads around the Gabba, however, are one of the venue’s most unattractive features, meaning the proposed Cross River Rail project, which promises a station near the Gabba, is crucial .

Parking is a nightmare, the city’s best hotels are nowhere near the venue, and the renovation of the ground into a glorified cake tin cut off the breezes.

Unlike Adelaide, there is no grass beyond the boundary. On a hot day, spectators bake.

Queensland officials are proud of the Gabba’s decorated heritage, which includes the tied Test against the West Indies in 1960-61, and a pitch that Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting regularly trumpet as the world’s best.

Queenslanders luxuriate in the fact that it is 30 years since Australia lost a Test at Fortress Gabba, yet for all these factors, there is, even among the players, an acceptance that the ground must move with the times.

“The Gabba is due for a reno and, hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later,’’ batsman Chris Lynn said recently.

“The poor old Gabba gets left behind. I love the Gabba, but I only have to worry about the pitch and the outfield.

“I think it is a little bit behind in terms of the change rooms and other things.’’

Originally published as Opinion: Gabba demoted after failing to move with the times