Developers, Investors Leap At Cricket To Draw Visitors, Spur Entertainment Districts

A midsized Texas city between Dallas and Fort Worth has become an international destination thanks to its cricket stadium as the sport gains popularity stateside. More such venues are on the way.

Grand Prairie’s 7,200-seat stadium is home to the Texas Super Kings, one of the six teams that played in the U.S.’ Major League Cricket during its inaugural season last year. About 50,000 people attended games during the two-week season and postseason, Grand Prairie City Manager Bill Hills told The New York Times.

Investors are increasingly interested in the growing audience for cricket, the world’s second-most-popular sport, which has an especially large South Asian audience, the NYT reported. Major League Cricket franchises the San Francisco Unicorns, the Los Angeles Knight Riders and the Seattle Orcas and their backers are all moving toward building new venues within the next few years.

The turnout to a dozen cricket games in Grand Prairie last year exceeded expectations, Hills told the NYT. The three-day playoffs in July generated $1.7M in economic activity, including hospitality, retail, dining and entertainment, he said.

“Who would have thought a city like Grand Prairie would host international sporting events” watched by millions, Hills told the NYT. 

Grand Prairie in 2020 greenlighted plans to turn its former minor league baseball venue into the first Major League Cricket stadium in the country, hoping to capitalize on the 15 to 20 million cricket fans who were already estimated to be in the U.S. 

Two years later, a group led by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gave Major League Cricket $120M to fund the construction of stadiums and training centers and host global cricket events in the U.S. over the following decade. 

That vision is now coming to life as Major League Cricket zeroes in on building more 7,000-to-10,000-seat stadiums in areas that could bloom into entertainment districts, the NYT reported. 

Cricket stadiums make a great anchor to attract people, David Demarest, who leads the sports and entertainment development group at JLL, told the NYT. That was part of the vision in Grand Prairie. 

“No question it is going to be something that can serve as a springboard to development. It is located in an opportunity zone,” Marty Wieder, former Grand Prairie director of economic development, said in 2022. 

The city planned to draw on the 100,000 or so Indian American people living in DFW. 

About 250,000 people originally from India or elsewhere in South Asia live in the San Francisco Bay Area, Unicorns General Manager David White said of a proposed stadium in the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. The Santa Clara site also hopes to attract a Major League Soccer stadium and more to become a sports and entertainment hub, the NYT reported. 

The Seattle Orcas plan to build a stadium at Marymoor Park in Redmond, Washington, near Bellevue, and the Los Angeles Knight Riders are eyeing a spot at the Great Park in Irvine, California. 

Vijay Srinivasan, a Bay Area entrepreneur who founded a cricket pay television channel, told the NYT the lack of cricket infrastructure in the U.S. is the main thing holding it back from hosting the most competitive games. 

Even so, Major League Cricket’s short season allowed many of the sport’s top players, including Australia’s Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cummins, to play in the U.S. league last year.