Let's lay this to rest. I said that it will not happen in my lifetime, and the reason is that it is totally impractical.
In order for it to be anything other than a pipedream, you would have to address the following 3 points :
a) Where would you put it?
b) Who would finance it?
c) Who would use it?
Some of you may not be aware at the moment that we currently having all sorts of Q&A sessions at government and sports authority level over the fiasco of the redevelopment of Wembley stadium. This is likely to cost in the region of three quarters of a billion pounds, so let's assume that a new cricket venue would cost just 50% of that and try to address the three problem areas.
a) Where would you put it?
London is a non-starter. There are already two test venues in the capital. If it is a national venue, it has to be accessible to people from the sticks. The authorities already screwed up in a big way over the Millennium Dome, because they built it in an area inaccessible to Londoners even.
The only other cities where one could in all practicality site a national cricket venue are Birmingham and Manchester. Both already have test match venues. These will not be redeveloped with a roof.
b) Who would finance it?
Don't look at the ECB. If it were to cost say £300 million minimum, then the interest on the loan would be at least £15 million a year. Now let's assume 50,000 seats, filled for 5 days of a test. That's 250,000 punters paying £30 each. That's an income of £7.5 million. You would have to play 2 sellout test matches a year just to cover the interest payments. I'm sure that the other venues would have a thing or two to say about that.
Don't look at central government for finance either. If the Labour party are in puwer, would you trust the future of a sport to a party who ravaged school sports in an attempt to remove competitiveless because 'losing scars kids for life'? Alternatively, if the Tories in power, a national cricket stadium would have to be financed by private enterprise. No-one would take the financial risk involved on what is a minority sport.
Don't look at the National Lottery either. There are far more deserving handouts for funding. Not only that, income from the National Lottery is falling by 5% on a year by year basis. In future, funding would be even harder to come by.
c) Who would use it?
Other counties? Schools? Australia and Pakistan? Other sports? Rock concerts? Remember, you would need to generate an income in the region of £1 million a week in order to finance it.
Nice idea. That's all.
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