A "turf war" has broken out over the Brisbane Cricket Ground pitch with concerned cricket officials warning the first Ashes Test "will be ruined" if the Australian Football League Women's grand final and the Brisbane Lions' first two home games are played at the ground. The Lions' hopes of hosting the inaugural AFLW grand final at the Gabba on March 25 "now rest with Stadiums Queensland, which is being lobbied by cricket officials to keep all activity off the ground for six weeks" (Brisbane COURIER-MAIL, 3/14).
Championship rugby side Featherstone Rovers made a "formal offer" to Super League club Wakefield Trinity to ground-share at Post Office Road for "at least" '18. Trinity Chair Michael Carter said that '17 is the team's final year at Belle Vue. Rovers GM Davide Longo said, "We believe Wakefield playing at Featherstone would be the best possible fit for supporters. [Particularly] given the fact our stadium is situated less than five miles away" (BBC, 3/13).
Heightened security measures will be in place at League One side AFC Wimbledon’s Kingsmeadow stadium on Tuesday night for the "highly charged" first home match against MK Dons, the club that "took away the old Wimbledon to Milton Keynes 15 years ago." Bitterness within Wimbledon’s support "still runs so deep at the perceived theft" of the club to Milton Keynes, which was "infamously sanctioned" by an FA-appointed panel, "there are fears of ugly scenes at the normally amiable south London ground." Only 650 tickets have been made available to MK Dons fans, "who have to travel in designated coaches to the ground, so their entry can be managed by stewards and police" (London GUARDIAN, 3/14).
The "exact location of the first ever Hampden Park" has been confirmed following an "extensive search" of the National Records of Scotland. Queen’s Park, Scotland’s oldest club, moved into "what was the world’s first purpose-built stadium" for club and int'l football in 1873. A move was forced to "allow the building of the Cathcart Circle railway line and the exact location of the pitch was forgotten" (SCOTSMAN, 3/14).
