The picturesque Adelaide Oval will become a 50,000-seat stadium with drop-in pitches after South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) members approved a major upgrade to the venue. The proposal needed at least 75% support to go ahead, and at a meeting on Monday night, 80% of votes from SACA members approved the redevelopment.
The decision means Australian rules football will return to Adelaide Oval, and the SACA will share the venue with the AFL's two Adelaide-based clubs. The upgrade sparked heated debate among South Australians, some of whom felt the ground would lose its character if the move went ahead, but it had the unanimous support of the SACA board.
"This is a game changer for the sport of cricket, for the whole of the state and really gives us the opportunity to put ourselves on an equal footing to our counterparts in the eastern states," the SACA chief executive John Harnden said in the lead-up to the vote. The half-a-billion dollar upgrade also had the support of the state government.
The move does not put the Adelaide Test at risk, and while most Sheffield Shield matches will still be held at the venue, there is the chance of the occasional state game being moved to the beachside suburb of Glenelg. Drop-in pitches will need to be used at Adelaide Oval from 2014, when the Adelaide and Port Adelaide AFL clubs start playing there.
More than 2000 of the SACA's 19,500 members attended Monday's meeting, while a further 8000 had already lodged a proxy vote. The SACA's $85 million debt will be cleared as part of the proposal.
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