The International Cricket Council released renderings of the temporary New York stadium set to host this summer’s men’s T20 World Cup. The venue will hold the tournament’s marquee matchup on June 9 between India and Pakistan, an intense rivalry that in October drew an audience on digital and TV about 3.5 times larger than the Super Bowl.
The facility in Eisenhower Park on Long Island will fit 34,000 fans with grandstands reused from the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix and a pitch currently being constructed in Florida. (The same architects that built Yankee Stadium and Citi Field are working on the project.)
New York will host eight matches, which will also be played in Dallas, Florida, and several locations in the co-host West Indies.
It’s the first time the U.S. team will play in the competition, one of the sport’s most significant, and the first time the country is hosting a premier tournament.
Cricket is one of the world’s most popular sports—a record 1.25 million people attended the 2023 ICC World Cup in India— and is catching on stateside. An American league, Major League Cricket, launched this past summer, and drew nearly 70,000 fans across 19 matches. The growing South Asian American population has also brought life to the game. The U.S. will again host top cricket competitions when the sport returns to the Olympics after over a century in 2028 in Los Angeles.
Twenty20, a condensed format of the game introduced in 2003 that lasts a few hours rather than a few days, has led to a massive upswing in fan interest and media rights.
