RICHARD GOULD is the CEO of Surrey County Cricket Club, which plays its home matches at The Oval in London. Recently, the club announced a proposed £50M redevelopment of the ground to be completed prior to the 2023 Ashes Test. The renovations will expand the stadium's capacity to 40,000 and make it the largest cricket venue in the U.K. Gould spoke to SBD Global about the impetus behind this proposal, how it will be executed and what to expect from the completed project.
On the reasoning behind the plan ...
Richard Gould: Cricket stadiums in the U.K. have always kind of been relatively small compared to those in India and Australia. So perhaps we've been a little bit slow in catching up in terms of size. But the impetus for growing has really come through Twenty20 cricket. ... We can sell many more seats than we currently have, so this is demand-led. We just need to be able to try to satisfy a market that's there.
On how the architects were selected ...
Gould: The Oval is actually owned by the Prince of Wales, PRINCE CHARLES, and Adam Architects do a lot of consultancy work with Prince Charles. So whenever we're doing developments at The Oval, the exterior design and the look and feel is done hand-in-glove both with Adam Architecture and, indeed, the Prince of Wales himself. So, any developments we're doing end up going up to him for final sign-off. In addition to that, we use another architect called Rolfe Judd and Rolfe Judd provide us with all of the technical assistance we need to turn the beautiful visions into workable stadiums.
On the local economic impact ...
Gould: During construction, there'll be lots of extra local jobs but that's a drop in the ocean, really, in our part of south London. ... There will certainly be more long-term jobs once the development is finished and is up because as well as being a big venue on matchdays, we're also a very big venue on non-matchdays for business meetings and conferences and the like. We employ a lot of staff on non-matchdays as well as matchdays preparing for all of those large events. So, to put it in context, last year we had something like 1,300 non-matchday events take place at The Kia Oval. After redevelopment, I expect that to be near 2,000 non-matchday events every year.
On the redevelopment timeframe …
Gould: It will be relatively tight. We would be looking to start in September 2019 because the next Ashes Test is in 2019 alongside the Cricket World Cup. So we don't want to do anything between now and then. We need the current facilities to be fully in place for '19. But after, we've got four years to make significant improvements. That should be enough for us to get up towards that figure that we're talking about.
On planning considerations ...
Gould: We already have a planning commission for a big development called 1 Oval Square, which would be incorporated into one of the new stands. ... We know there are always lots of hoops to jump through planning projects but we're ready for that. We're experienced for it because we've been doing significant projects for four or five years, so we've got a very well-placed design team.
On input from the England & Wales Cricket Board ...
Gould: The ECB has made it clear that they would like to see bigger venues. The ECB doesn't own any of its own venues. They're all owned by the cricket clubs. Therefore, for us to have the confidence to deliver on these projects, we need to make sure we've got enough cricket being scheduled at the right time. ... We've got a good relationship with ECB and will work hand-in-glove with them in order to try to deliver a bigger stadium for the good of the game. A bigger stadium means more revenue through higher ticket gates ... and that will end up going back into the ECB for distribution throughout the game.
On how it will be financed ...
Gould: We're looking at a variety of different routes. We have fundraising reserved; we have very good bankers who have lent us money in the past for big projects and those projects are coming close to being paid up so ... we're ready to invest again. In addition, a couple of years ago, for one of our projects we launched a bond scheme and we raised over £5 million ($6.4M) in five days. So we have got very many different routes of funding, all of it based on the fact that our business is very successful and very vibrant.
On what to expect from the new stands …
Gould: The Bedser Stand ... doesn't actually contain that many seats. It's only got 1,800 public seats. We'll be looking to take that number up to 6,000 to 8,000 with a newly-designed stand. ... The one that we're probably going to do first will be the Lock-Laser stand, which is the one that will back on to our new development, 1 Oval Square. We're already halfway through that one in terms of planning. ... People want to be able to have a seat but also have a bar to the back and be able to linger. So we'll be designing in lots of areas alongside the seats where people will be able to stand and chat and watch the game and mingle.
On how this affects viability as a Test venue ...
Gould: Historically, it's become the norm for the last Test match of the summer to be held at The Oval so we'd expect that to continue but we don't want to take anything for granted, hence our development plans. We always want to be at the forefront.
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