Rain Rain Go Away,
Come Again Another Day
Little Johnny Wants to Play
This nursery rhyme hits a little too close to heart for cricket fans.
Rain, Rain Go Away
Case and point, Greater Noida 2024.
In case you were living under a rock this past week, the scheduled Test match between Afghanistan & New Zealand was called off without a single ball bowled due to rain, wet outfield, and drainage issues.
Bizarre.
A few days prior, the Sri Lanka-England series was rudely interrupted by bad light. We even had to sit through Chris Woakes’ off-spin.
Embed from Getty Images
So What?
Umpires bringing out their light meters out is a common sight in England’s overcast conditions.
We cannot control the weather. So, how can we fix this?
Several proposals have come up over the years: Better Drainage systems (see Sri Lanka), pink ball all the time (especially England), and earlier starts in the day for late-summer months.
All are good ideas, but let’s consider another idea that has been vaguely mentioned—A covered or ‘retractable’ stadium.
Remember that one stadium where the Shahid Afridi hit 12 runs in one ball? Yep, that’s the one.
Key Takeaways
- In one of our previous analysis, “How Much Money Does It Take to Host a Test Match?,” we estimated that it takes about $350,000-$1.4 million per 5-day Test depending on the technology used i.e. about $70,000-$280,000 per day of cricket.
- It takes about $100-$150 million to add a retractable roof in a stadium (although in some cases the expenses ballooned up to $300 million). For maintenance & repairs, a future budget between $20-30 million needs to be kept aside.
- It would take about 357-4,286 days of rain affected matches for the cost of the retractable roof to recover*
- In England’s 2024 home season (men’s), six days were rain-affected, one of which was washed out and 5 others were affected by bad light. In 2023, 9 Tests & 5 ODIs were impacted by rain, five of which were no results or complete wash outs. At least 2-5 Hundred matches were marred by rain as well.
*If the roof is only used for international cricket and no other sport
Embed from Getty Images
Retractable Roofs in Cricket, Does it Make Economic Sense?
The city of Charlotte in North Carolina is currently debating whether to spend $650 million for a stadium upgrade without a roof or shell out $800 million with one.
Adding a roof will make the stadium more likely to get gigs for the Super Bowl or College Football Title. Why is this important?
According to Statista, a whopping 123.4 million tuned in for Super Bowl in 2024. It is estimated that consumers spend about $18.7 billion on Super Bowl Sunday, adding to the U.S. economy.
The NFL cannot afford to lose millions of advertising dollars due to weather or unnecessary delays, so they are more inclined to pick stadiums with a covered roof.
Embed from Getty Images
What is the Return on Investment?
In 2001, the Milwaukee Brewers installed a retractable roof. The Miller Park roof has helped draw over 1 million additional fans every year.
Rick Schlesigner, the CEO of Brewers said that he is “very pleased with the roof.” As of 2018, the roof had been used 4,014 times and had “delivered its promise to fans.”
What About Maintenance?
Building the stadium is only a part of the equation, recurring repair & maintenance costs is the other. Brewers’ have estimated that future repairs, maintenance, ironworkers, engineers, roofers will cost about $37.1 million.
Embed from Getty Images
How Much Do Domes & Retractable Roofs Cost Around the World?
Like Charlotte, other cities like Buffalo, New York (who are usually trounced by snow storms) have also debated whether to add retractable roofs.
According to AECOM’s “Preliminary Buffalo Bills Stadium Analysis”, making the stadium ‘roof-ready’ will cost them about $109 million, while actually building the new roof will cost about $298 million.
Building NFL stadiums is already a costly endeavor. According to Constructive Dive, the overall construction cost for the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles cost a record $5.5 billion (most expensive stadium ever built), Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta was about $1.5 billion, and the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis was about $1.2 billion.
Similar, the owner of the MLB team, New York Mets, estimated that it would take them $800 million to add a retractable roof, while it would have only costed $125 million if it were to be installed during construction.
Embed from Getty Images
Cost of Domes and Retractable Roofs in Sports
Here are a few examples of stadiums from different sports and how much their construction cost for a covered stadium. This is not an exhaustive list by any means.
Although cricket was a pioneer in adopting technologies like Hawkeye, it is way behind in architectural investment and innovation.
Archibald Stadium – Carrier Dome ($26.85 Million)
- Sport: College Football
- Location: Syracuse, New York
- Capacity: 40,000
In 1980, Carrier Dome at Syracuse University was one of the first covered domes and the largest collegiate dome. It cost about $27 million back then. The dome was later renovated in 2021 for $118 million.
Sources: IndustryTap
No. 1 Court, Wimbledon (£71 million ~ $93 Million)
- Sport: Tennis
- Location: London, England
- Capacity: 12,345
Sources: Independent
Embed from Getty Images
Lucas Oil Stadium ($100 Million)
- Sport: NFL
- Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
- Capacity: 70,000
Embed from Getty Images
Sources: IndyStar
Arthur Ashe Stadium ($150 Million)
Embed from Getty Images
- Sport: Tennis
- Location: Queens, New York
- Capacity: 23,771
Sources: Reuters Report, Rules of When to Close the Roof
Marvel (Docklands) Stadium ($270 Million)
- Sport: Multipurpose (AFL, Rugby, Soccer, Cricket, Grand Prix)
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Capacity: 50,000
*Note: The $270 million ($460 million AUD) cost is for the entire stadium construction, not just the roof.
Sources: StadiumDB
Embed from Getty Images
Proposed Stadiums
Huntington Bank Field, Cleveland Browns ($2.4 Billion – Proposed)
- Sport: NFL
- Location: Cleveland, Ohio
- Capacity: 70,000
The proposed $2.4 billion investment for the dome would be split between public and private financing, making the $1.2 billion allocated for private investment as the largest private per capita stadium investment in the country.
Sources: Sportico
Macquerie Point Stadium ($375 Million – Proposed)
- Sport: AFL, Cricket
- Location: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
- Capacity: 23,000
This stadium will utilize ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), essentially a plastic-see through roof. This is based of other stadiums that have used ETFE like the Allianz Arena in Munich, Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Rugby stadium (cost around $200 million overall), Las Vegas bowl, and Bejing.
Sources: The Daily Mail
Embed from Getty Images
The ‘Big O’ Montreal Stadium ($875 Million – Proposed)
- Sport: Olympics Stadium
- Location: Montreal, Canada
- Capacity: 73,000
*Note: The 1976 Olympic stadium is getting a makeover with the roof itself costing $875 million. The replacement roof will not be retractable, but will be translucent to allow for sunlight.
Sources: Soccer Stadium Digest, Montreal News
Honorable Mentions: The Te Kaha multipurpose stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand is forecasted to run at $683 million (all costs, including roof).
Who Pays for It?
In most cases, the city that hosts the stadium is responsible for paying for any stadium, construction, and repair costs.
Influx of private partnership is helping alleviate some of the costs that the local government gets burdened with.
Due to the complex funding structure, the planning and construction process can go through political interference, red tape, delays, and budget overruns.
How Will A Retractable Stadium in Cricket Impact Playing Conditions?
Playing conditions play a major role in cricket.
Will the amount of swing decrease in England? Do we want natural elements to go out of the game?
In addition, there is another consideration of air circulation and heat, something that the Arthur Ashe stadium had issues with.
How Much Money Does Cricket Lose to Rain?
We will consider the last three seasons.
To find out how much money cricket lost to rain, we first need to figure out how many days were affected by rain.
England Home Season (Men’s)
*Note: W/O denotes complete wash out. N/R denotes No Result
2024 Season
| Rain Affected/Wet Outfield | Bad Light |
| – 3rd T20I v Pak (W/O) – 3rd Test v WI, Day 2 – 1st Test vs SL, Day 2 – 1st Test vs SL, Day 3 – 3rd Test vs SL, Day 3 |
– 1st Test vs WI, Day 1 – 1st Test vs SL, Day 1 – 2nd Test vs SL, Day 3 – 3rd Test vs SL, Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 |
2023 Season
| Rain Affected/Wet Outfield |
| – Ashes 1st Test, Day 3 – 1st Test, Day 5 – 2nd Test, Day 1 – 2nd Test, Day 3 – 3rd Test, Day 3 – 4th Test, Day 4 – 4th Test, Day 5 (W/O) – 5th Test, Day 4 – 5th Test, Day 5 – Ire v Ban, 1st ODI (N/R) – Ire v Ban, 2nd ODI(45-over ODI) – Ire v Eng, 1st ODI (W/O) – Ire v Eng, 3rd ODI (N/R) – NZ v Eng, 2nd ODI (34-over ODI) |
*Note: Not many matches were affected by Bad Light in 2023, most of the interruptions were all rain/wet outfield related.
2022 Season
| Rain Affected/Wet Outfield | Bad Light |
| – 1st Test* v Ind, Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 5 (W/O) – 2nd Test* v Ind, Day 1 – 5th Test v Ind, Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – 1st Test v NZ, Day 3 – 2nd Test v NZ, Day 2 – 3rd Test v NZ, Day 1 – Day 3 – Day 5 – 2nd ODI v SA (29-over ODI) – 3rd ODI v SA (N/R) – 1st Test v SA, Day 1 – 3rd Test v SA, Day 1 (W/O) – Day 2 (W/O) |
– 1st Test v Ind, Day 2 – 2nd Test v Ind, Day 4 – 3rd Test v Ind, Day 3 – 4th Test v Ind, Day 3 – 3rd Test v SA, Day 3 – SA, Day 4 |
*Note: We exclude these matches from our calculations since the 1st 4 Tests of the Pataudi Trophy were held in 2021
ICC & Other Tournaments
- 2024 T20 World Cup
- 2024 (M): Match 6 (N/R), Match 23 (W/O), Match 30 (W/O), Match 33 (W/O), Match 34 (10-over), Match 44 (11.2-over DLS), Match 50 (17-over DLS), Match 52 (19-over DLS)
- 2023 (W): Match 18 (8.2-over DLS)
- ODI World Cup
- 2023 (M): Match 35 (25.3-Overs DLS)
- 2022 (W): Match 5 (27-over), Match 20 (20-over), Match 23 (N/R), Aus-WI SF (45-over)
- 2019 (M): Match 7 (41-over), Match 11 (W/O), Match 16 (W/O), Match 18 (W/O), Match 21 (48-over), Match 22 (40-over DLS), Match 25 (49-over), Ind-NZ SF (2 days)
- 2017 (W): Match 6 (W/O), Match 21 (24-over DLS), Ind-Aus SF (42-over)
- The Hundred
- 2024 (W): Match 21 (W/O), Match 32 (N/R)
- 2024 (M): Match 21 (N/R), Match 29 (44-balls), Match 30 (N/R), Match 32 (30-balls)
- 2023 (W): Match 2 (W/O), Match 3 (W/O), Match 6 (W/O), Match 7 (W/O), Eliminator (N/R)
- 2023 (M): Match 2 (40-balls), Match 6 (N/R), Match 7 (W/O), Match 11 (NR), Match 18 (90-balls)
- 2022 (M/W): None
Note: We only consider England’s home season and The Hundred. County Championship, Royal One Day Cup, and the T20 Vitality Blast lose a number of matches.
Also Read: How Much Money Does it take the ICC to Host a Cricket World Cup? (Case Study), How Has England’s Domestic Cricket Schedule Changed in the Last 50 Years?
Final Thoughts
For a sport that seems to be struggling financially on a larger scale, adding a retractable roof in cricket is, in most cases, a bad idea.
Of course, we cannot build a retractable in every stadium. However, countries that can afford and/or have a dire need may be able to afford this on a case-by-case basis.
For example, the Wankhede, Eden Gardens, or the Narendra Modi Stadium in India, SSC in Sri Lanka, Lord’s in England (in case they host the WTC Final for the next 100 years), and the MCG in Australia for some of the larger occasions.
What do you think?
Anyway, retractable roofs in cricket are just one part of the alternative. We will do deep dive into how drainage systems work in cricket and other sports at a different time.
****
Thanks for reading!
Other Sources: Walter Moore Roof Stadium Projects, Baseball Stadiums Analysis, Las Vegas New $1.5 Billion Stadium
Also Read:
© Copyright @Nitesh Mathur and Broken Cricket Dreams, LLC 2023. Originally published on 07/29/2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Broken Cricket Dreams with appropriate and specific direction to the original content (i.e. linked to the exact post/article).
Related
