World’s first all-weather cricket stadium: Macquarie Point plans excite cricket boss

The proposed Hobart stadium at Macquarie Point will be the world’s first all-weather cricket ground with a roof high enough to ensure the ball won’t hit it even in the most extreme situations.

At a cost of $715 million, the stadium will boast the largest timber roof in the world and has been designed to accommodate the needs of cricket and the AFL.

“There is a wonderful opportunity for Tasmania to be a leader in innovation for the future of the game,” Cricket Tasmania Chairman David Boon said.

“We want to play cricket in this stadium and look forward to working collaboratively with all parties over the coming months as the design is finalised.”

The architects conducted extensive modelling to determine the optimal roof height of 50 metres, far exceeding the maximum height a cricket ball is expected to reach.

“What we’ve done … is we’ve worked through looking at Hawk-Eye and the ball technology, to actually assess the maximum height that anyone’s hit a ball, which is quite interesting,” architect Alastair Richardson said.

“Then, actually, pushed the roof to 50 metres, which cricket was really happy with, because there’s no instance of anyone hitting a ball at 50 metres.”

“If you do hit the ball straight up at that sort of height, then you probably deserve to be out.”

While the new stadium promises exciting prospects, it makes the future of Cricket Tasmania’s current home at Blundstone Arena uncertain.

“To commit to moving cricket content from our current home to the new stadium, we need to discuss the future of Bellerive Oval and Cricket Tasmania’s role in its operation and management,” Boon said.

“The timing of this is important given the needs of our existing male and female professional programs, pathways programs, the Tasmania Devils and Clarence Football Club as current tenants.”