A MAJOR $21 million redevelopment of Bellerive Oval will put Hobart in the mix to host an Ashes Test, and without it the state risks losing all international cricket.

That was the stark choice put forward by Cricket Tasmania when it unveiled plans to increase the ground's capacity from 16,000 to 20,000 to the Mercury yesterday.

Importantly for a modern market, it would lift seating from about 10,000 to nearly 15,000.

CT chairman Tony Harrison said that with major redevelopment plans in Perth, Melbourne and Canberra, and upgrades in progress or just completed in Adelaide and Sydney, the cricket market had never been more competitive.

"I think we would have a good chance of getting an Ashes Test," Harrison said.

"It is very hard to say what the Future Tours program is going to look like but we would have a better chance of making a case for six Ashes Tests if we had a venue with a bigger capacity, a much better case for it.

"[The other states] are competing with us for cricket content and I know from my capacity on the Cricket Australia board we are getting requests to play matches in all these places.

"If our venue is not up to scratch, if we don't maintain our venue up to that standard, then we are going to miss out."

The redevelopment would lift the chance for more international games, including in the 2015 one-day World Cup and the expanded Twenty20 Big Bash competition, and would allow the venue to host AFL games.

Harrison said getting North Melbourne to Hobart for regular AFL premiership games would help the cause, and CT would continue discussions with the Kangaroos president James Brayshaw.

"It makes sense from an economic point of view if you are going to spend that sort of money on a redevelopment," he said. "But the point I want to make is the development we have proposed is not a football development."

The new development along the western side of the ground includes removal of the existing Clarence District Cricket Club clubrooms, and will increase seating and include new changerooms as well as coaching boxes and a broadcast area for football.

He said CT had got verbal support from the federal and state governments before this year's elections but had not had any confirmation since.

To get a sixth Ashes Test, England would have to be willing to reciprocate, but has so far been unwilling to do so.

"I want to bid for an Ashes Test match but when I do that, Cricket Australia look at me and say, 'what's the return you are going to give us from your venue?"' Harrison said.

"To be realistic, we're competing with Adelaide and Perth, and we can't provide the same sort of return because we haven't got the capacity."

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/20 ... -news.html

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Oldish news, but with the Nomads looking set to play a couple of games per season from next year at Bellerive, it's looking pretty likely.

As you can see, it really just involves extending the Soutthern Stand west somewhat, and also extending the pavilion east. Seems to imply that the Church Street end is a no-extension zone (for good reason).

Might improve the oval's potential for hosting large cricket matches, but won't improve its capabilities as a football oval. All of the crowd will still be situated at one end, and we'll still have to deal with the ridiculous situation of having only corporate boxes behind the northern goals.

Wow, that's quite an upgrade.

The WACA is the ground under threat here. With Adelaide going to 50,000 capacity you'll have Brisbane (40k), Sydney (45k), Adelaide (50k) and Melbourne (99.5k) locked in, and the two ~20k grounds slugging it out for the 5th test.

There will never be a 6 test series again. The ICC doesn't approve of series of more than 5 tests and besides, the Poms said no last time we asked anyway.

I was about to post an article regarding a Manuka upgrade. With the lacklustre effort of the Aussie's in the recent Ashes series - with particular emphasis on the poor lead up we had - I would not be suprised if the next time England tour it's a 7 test summer, with two test matches preceding the Ashes series against New Zealand or Sri Lanka as a warm up. The next home Ashes series is in 2013/14, which coincides with the centeneray of the founding of Canberra. The ACT government is lobbying hard for a test match to be held at an upgraded Manuka that year as part of the celebrations.

Could easily see the summer 2013/14 lineup being

New Zealand in Australia (2 Tests, Canberra and Perth)
England in Australia (5 Tests, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney).

Puts the capacity within spitting distance of York Park. I think it looks good. The Tassies are likely to throw money at this because there are so few international events they have the boast about.

Hobart is doing quite well after the opening of MONA it is bring a lot of tourist dollers in.

and maybe by 2014 SCG could be at about 48k..ahem

I'd say WACA would be under threat. But it would be a brave official that would strip an Ashes test away from Perth, particularly at a venue the Poms often struggle at.

Stop that you cheeky bastard. You know something!

The AFL will struggle to get more seats at the members area and what do u know crowzy

I'm more impressed with that bright red london style double decker bus in the foreground.

Plenty....check out the overtime on my timesheet !!!!!

^^ Tease.

Egan, you could be right. The ECB wasn't afraid of ditching Old Trafford and Trent Bridge for Sophia Gardens. The only thing the WACA would have in its favour here is the Board structure of CA favouring them over Tassie. If the Tassie government are inclined to throw some cash, they could get there.

Would be nice if part of the redevelopment was to shorten the ground somewhat, would make it a better venue for hosting soccer or rugby games as well when neccesary.

Wouldn't want to make it too small for when the Kangaroos have to move there.

Random question, does Tasmania have Kangaroos in the wild? Could be a rather ironic name if they don't.

Current capacity should be fine for when that happens.

they have wallabies at least - I know from getting up close to one with a hire car a few years back - the car was not damaged