PANSTADIA & ARENA MANAGEMENT WINTER 2013/14
The Ashes – A Tale of Two Countries
Australian architecture is taking cricket grounds into a new era, building on tradition to provide fl exible social spaces for general admission and corporate fans.
W
hilst Europe and North America bunker down to another winter, the
bi-annual clash of the two cricket Test titans begins in Australia. This oldest of team sports, and the fi rst international team sport played between two countries, dates back to 1882, when the now infamous ode was written after Australia beat England at their own game in their own back yard.
This year marks a unique confl uence of events with both the England and the Australian tour occurring in the same calendar year, a unique feat achieved as a direct result of the London Olympics and Australia’s hosting of the 2015 Cricket World Cup. By the time The Ashes tour fi nishes in January this famous Test would have been played out 68 times with each country hosting 34 series. As for the ledger, well it currently has both teams evenly matched in terms of the overall series with 31 wins apiece and fi ve draws, with Australia on top in terms of games won at 123 compared to England’s 103 at the conclusion of the England Ashes Series in August 2013.
Over the 121 years of the Ashes Test, Australia has not only edged ahead of England in terms of games won but it has also far outstripped the ‘old enemy’ in terms of cricket ground development. Australia’s passion for cricket has defi ned part of its cultural identity; ever since the days of the fi rst win over the mother country in 1882, the infamous ‘bodyline’ series of 1933 and the creation of our fi rst international sporting legend Donald Bradman, cricket has defi ned a country’s sense of national and international identity and its cricket grounds are immortalised as national treasures.
This passion for cricket, backed by the might of Australia’s home grown sport Australian Football, has led to the redevelopment of existing grounds, the development of new grounds and the planning of new grounds over the past 15 years. The fi nal piece of the major stadium redevelopment jigsaw
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in Australia is currently underway in Perth, Western Australia, with the State government tender for the new 60,000 seat oval stadium at Burswood peninsula.
Opening batters
The Australian Ashes Tour will see the opening of the new Adelaide Oval and the opening of the latest pavilion, the new Northern Stand, at Sydney Cricket Ground. This combined with the refurbishment of Melbourne Cricket Ground, will see fans having access to over 1.34million seats over the fi ve days of each Test during the Australian series. This compares to the 565,000 seats available in England earlier in the year.
The economic drivers of the oval grounds in Australia resulting from cricket and Australian football have seen over $2billion dollars invested into stadium development in the last ten years alone. This has led to the development of the next generation of the cricket ground, one that combines character and tradition with cutting- edge design. This new direction in the development of the cricket ground for the 21st century is being led by Cox Architecture who are leading the designs for the new 50,000 seat Adelaide Oval, the new 13,700 seat SCG Northern Stand, the refurbishment of the MCG and the masterplanning for the WACA. All of these developments are producing a distinctly antipodean response to climate, context and environment combined with a hybridisation of the best of UK and USA sports architecture to deliver a sport community that is distinctly Australian.
Stadium design in the UK and Europe has been defi ned by concerns of crowd behaviour and safety as a result of the disasters of the last century, resulting in an approach to design that is based on a spreadsheet without thought of the humane and social aspects of the sport community. Fans are treated as a hindrance rather than the passion that
Sydney Cricket Ground – Northern Stand Redevelopment
(stage 2) Sydney, New South Wales Size 25,000m2
Capacity 13,360 seats Opening 2014
Construction cost
$186m
Amenities New dining rooms, clubs, bars restaurants, a micro brewery, retail outlets and improved seating. New public and corporate facilities on the eastern end of the Northern Stand and improved media facilities.
Architect Cox Architecture
drives a community. Meanwhile in the USA stadia design for the professional sports has become so focused on revenue generation and commercial exploitation that it has lost its social charter with the everyday fan. It is through these two extremes that we have learnt in Australia to develop ‘fan centric’ stadium designs that create a community based on the very principles of the environments in which we live.
Sydney Cricket Ground
The iconic cricket ground in the heart of Sydney marked its 100th Test in 2012 and is currently undergoing its latest transformation as a part of a new masterplan that integrates the precincts, bringing sport back to the heart of the city. The new Northern Stand that will open for this year’s Ashes tour combines new members facilities and public facilities in a pavilion
GFA
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