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The United States is quite possibly getting a professional Cricket League: 8 launch sites identified
I've been meaning to post this for a while but it has constantly slipped my mind. The U.S. is quite possibly getting a professional cricket league that will start off with 8 launch sites that will have their own teams, venues, stadiums, and other accommodations.
The 8 identified spots include:
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Professional cricket continues to move closer to reality in the U.S., which boasts the second-biggest audience for the sport in the world. Host cities are being lined up for franchises, negotiations on major television and sponsorship deals are ongoing, and American-based players are signing contracts and starting training programs.
The professional sports landscape is deep in the U.S., but there is significant interest in cricket that’s driven in large part by a sizable South Asian population. More than 1.4 million people in the U.S. watched last year’s ICC World Twenty20 competition won by West Indies, and America somewhat surprisingly ranks second in global cricket viewership behind only India. T20 is a popular short form of cricket in which the teams are limited to a single innings each. With a typical game lasting about three hours, it’s in line with most other professional team sports.
Cities with high South Asian populations were targeted as sites for the eight franchises and Global Sports Ventures is working with legislators to develop new stadiums in major metropolitan areas in New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Georgia, Florida, Texas, Illinois and California. The technology hub in San Francisco, for example, clearly has strong appeal for the new cricket league.
“It will be a great addition to the professional sports network that we already have in San Francisco,” says Dennis Conaghan, the executive director for the San Francisco Center for Economic Development. “It also reinforces our city’s reputation as not just the capital of innovation and technology, but as an exciting and diverse global hub for culture, arts and sport.”
With regards to where in those states, a separate report outlines that in California it will be the San Francisco Bay Area, in Texas it will be the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, in Florida it will be the Greater Orlando area, in New Jersey it will be in Northern New Jersey, in Illinois it will be in Chicagoland, in Georgia it will be in Greater Atlanta, and I assume the rest are self-explanatory.
These are renderings for the type of stadiums and surrounding environs that they plan to build:
Interesting, since I'm not sure if any high schools or colleges even play cricket? Or if to a limited extent, there might be a handful of elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges that offer this sport?
I hope this league is successful and wish them luck, since I've enjoyed watching cricket the rare times it has been televised on channels like ESPN, or foreign channels with an American presence on U.S. cable. I just worry it may not be as successful, as say Major League Soccer(MLS) has. But who knows, maybe I'll be proven wrong and this league does have staying power?
It's odds of succeeding could be worse off I guess, since at least it isn't hurling(which is lesser known). Which I only finally watched for my first time ever at a bar while I was in Dublin, Ireland, and found that to be a fascinating sport! And I'd also NEVER heard of hurling, till I saw that match being televised on a TV at that Dublin bar. But it appears that's only played in Ireland, and supposedly(I haven't been able to confirm this) Scotland. BTW, for those who've never heard of hurling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurling
i would guess anywhere that has a lot of residents from former english colonies would have enough support:
bajan, trini, indian, austrailian, english, (do african natives play cricket ?) ...
what would be the next expansion city ? (boston, toronto ?)
i would guess anywhere that has a lot of residents from former english colonies would have enough support:
bajan, trini, indian, austrailian, english, (do african natives play cricket ?) ...
what would be the next expansion city ? (boston, toronto ?)
Those two would be the logical next stops, a part of me thinks that they both should be in the first group.
The Boston area already has a pretty solid cricket league.
I grew up playing in my home country and was happy to get a game in with one of the clubs in Mattapan when I had a chance to play.
+1, question about the demographics of the cricket league you played for. i'd hate to stare this thread into ethnicity but since mattapan is mostly haitian immigrants and their families was the cricket league also haitian-americans (i am haitian-american by the way) ?
either way its cool. inner-city dwellers (especially those of a different language) are usually less exposed to different things.
what would be the next expansion city ? (boston, toronto ?)
No actual chance on Toronto in the interim period. Toronto already has the demographics to make it work and also cricket is played at the stadium in Toronto often. Actual matches featuring two other countries have been played in Toronto numerous times and they have a great fanbase and following for the sport in Toronto in general. Toronto would have easily been the #2 team to launch with after New York but it is clear that they want this league to be U.S. centric only.
So to answer your question the next set of expansions in the United States will be Los Angeles, followed by the likes of Boston, Houston, Miami, Seattle, so on and so forth.
+1, question about the demographics of the cricket league you played for. i'd hate to stare this thread into ethnicity but since mattapan is mostly haitian immigrants and their families was the cricket league also haitian-americans (i am haitian-american by the way) ?
either way its cool. inner-city dwellers (especially those of a different language) are usually less exposed to different things.
No problem answering your question at all bredren. The demographics were mostly Jamaican, Trini, Guyanese and Bajan. It did not seem very popular in the Haitian community in Boston from what I gathered. The reason the club was HQ'd in Mattapan is because the captain lived in Milton right on the Mattapan line.
Franklin park has practice matches going on regularly nearby also.
This is interesting. I know nothing about cricket but I have taken an interest in many obscure sports leagues that have come and gone over the years. Certainly the odds are stacked against them but the strength is always in the niche and if they can gain popularity amongst the hardcore fans and keep costs very low, there's a chance.
I wonder what's happened to the Rugby Sevens league that was discussed a year ago...that sport translates very well to mainstream america.
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Originally Posted by SonySegaTendo617
It's odds of succeeding could be worse off I guess, since at least it isn't hurling(which is lesser known). Which I only finally watched for my first time ever at a bar while I was in Dublin, Ireland, and found that to be a fascinating sport! And I'd also NEVER heard of hurling, till I saw that match being televised on a TV at that Dublin bar. But it appears that's only played in Ireland, and supposedly(I haven't been able to confirm this) Scotland. BTW, for those who've never heard of hurling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurling
I came across hurling when I first got into rugby a couple years ago and went down the youtube rabbit hole. (if you're wondering, rugby>australian rules football>gaelic rules football>hurling...i think there were a few other sports I came across for good measure) Pretty interesting!
Anyway, from the wiki link you shared it appears hurling is played in a handful of other countries. There are even a few college teams in the US.
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