WACA Ground to become boutique cricket heaven

The WACA’s $75m transformation into a “boutique” ground will start after the Women’s T20 World Cup ends in March.

The WACA ground will undergo a $75m redevelopment as a boutique venue.

The WACA’s $75m transformation into a “boutique” ground will start after the Women’s T20 World Cup ends in March.

The fences around the famous old ground will come down to give East Perth a new village green. Concerts, night markets and community events will, the WACA says, breathe life into the area.

Cricket will remain the ground’s prime directive. If anything, the works will fortify the WACA as the home of West Australian cricket. The home of WA cricket but not necessarily the home of WA Test cricket.

For, when Perth Stadium was unveiled two years ago, WA fans were told Tests would still be played at their beloved WACA.

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The plan was for Ashes, India and South Africa Tests to be played at the new venue, with matches against other nations — New Zealand, for example — to remain at the old ground.

The WACA could have accommodated the crowds that have attended the first Test. Of the daily attendances, only day two’s 20,018 ticked over the WACA’s capacity of 20,000 (which swelled to 22,000 during the most recent Ashes). Instead the first Test has been played before expanses of empty seats in the 60,000-seat Perth Stadium.

CA said yesterday any crowds above 15,000 were better accommodated at the new arena.

A spokesman said Tests would be scheduled at Perth Stadium when the daily attendances were forecast to pass 15,000.

Perth Stadium might look like a careened prison hulk from a distance but it is new, shiny and clean. There’s no shortage of bars, kiosks, or betting shops.

It’s spectacular in scale and audacious in conception. And, at $1.6bn, expensive in delivery.

But it’s a deluxe, corporate-friendly (if not always fan-friendly) arena, and as such lacks the WACA’s atmosphere.

Given the food poisoning scare on Sunday, the Test caravan might give both Perth Stadium and the WACA a miss next season.

“If you have purchased any sandwiches, wraps or salads at the stadium today please present back to the outlet of purchase immediately,” the scoreboard declared an hour into play. The message was updated to say only patrons who’d had chicken should be concerned.

The incident was untimely, given the stadium arms-race raging across the country. A contest that’s intensified since the schedule went from six- to five-Test summers.

Sadly, Hobart has all but fallen off the map and the Canberra Test — such a success last summer — might end up being just that, the Canberra Test.

The WACA’s future as a Test venue might be uncertain but, after missing a cricket season next year while the redevelopment takes place, the WACA aims to maintain its “ICC accreditation as an international cricket venue”.

The nuts and bolts of the WACA development are these: The Inverarity and Prindiville stands will be razed. A new, smaller, stand, rather like the low pavilion at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval, will be built on the approximate site of the Prindiville Stand.

The Lillee-Marsh Stand will stay, for the time at least, as will the old scoreboard and the grass mounds on either sides of the oval.

The WACA’s lack of shade, a source of many complaints, especially in recent years, will be addressed by substantial adding sails and shade cloth.

The capacity will be halved, but with a provision for temporary stands to lift it to 15,000.

A new indoor centre will be built near the nets, the museum will be “reinvigorated”, and the WACA’s 125 staff will be housed in new offices.

State government funding is the last piece of the puzzle. The WACA is hoping the McGowan government will match the Commonwealth’s $30m commitment, announced yesterday in Perth.

The WACA is contributing $10m and Cricket Australia $4m.

WACA chief executive Christina Matthews said the development would transform the WACA into “a boutique ground that complements Optus Stadium and activates the East Perth precinct”.

“So many of us have a cherished WACA Ground memory and now we can retain its heritage and rich history, while creating a venue with a strong community focus that has multi-sport, gender equal facilities,” Matthews said.