It's a sport that's centuries old, but it's brand new to North Texas.
Major League Cricket debuts in Grand Prairie this week, as the Texas Super Kings take on the Los Angeles Knight Riders in the first professional cricket match to be played on U.S. soil.
The game, as well as all games in the first half of the MLC season, will be played in the newly-reconfigured Grand Prairie Stadium.
Marty Wieder, the director of economic development for the City of Grand Prairie, says the minor league baseball park that the cricket stadium replaced just wasn't working out.
"It was way too close to Globe Life Park, now Globe Life Field," says Wieder. "And so it made sense once we had cricket individuals contacting us to explore this."
If the opening game is any indication, the new cricket stadium should have no such attendance issues.
"We were averaging about 1,000 people per game over a 35 to 40-home-game annual season," says Wieder, "and we're already sold out at 7,500 seats for the opener."
Wieder is expecting big things for the sport of cricket in the city.
"They estimate they're going to have about 30 ticketed events each year," Wieder says, "and the estimates we've heard from USA Cricket are probably going to be at least 100,000 in annual attendance."
The MLC competition format is what's known as Twenty20, or T20 for short.
Unlike major international competitions like the ICC World Cup, in which each team has 50 "overs," consisting of six bowled balls, teams in Twenty20 have only 20 overs to work with.
That keeps the length of matches down to about three hours.
The 2024 ICC T20 World Cup will be jointly hosted by the West Indies and the U.S., and Wieder says Grand Prairie Stadium stands a good chance at hosting some of the matches.
"With this one able to have temporary seating and be able to accommodate 20,000 people, we think we've got a good shot at landing some of those matches and adding another first, not only to the United States but for Grand Prairie," Wieder says.
While the stadium will be primarily a cricket venue, it could be used for other sports too, including one that has gained a cult following here in the U.S.
"The oval lends itself to a sport that many of you watch on TV but haven't seen live: Australian Rules Football," says Wieder.
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Tell your Smart Speaker to "PLAY 1080 KRLD"
Sign Up to receive our KRLD Insider Newsletter for more news