The Oval is all set to increase its capacity from 25,500 to 40,000

One of the three venues for Champions Trophy 2017, The Oval is all set to increase its capacity by 2023 Ashes series. The initiation of Oval is back in 1845 and since then, it is the home ground for Surrey Country Club. Historically, it is the first stadium in England to host a Test match back in 1880.

In recent times, the business at The Oval has flourished and observing the rise in profits Surrey have announced its plans to increase capacity from present 25,500 to 40,000 in 6 years time. Surrey are aiming to complete this project before 2023 Ashes series which is scheduled to take place in England.

If they are able to put this into practice, The Oval will become the largest cricket stadium (capacity wise) in Britain, overtaking Lord’s capacity of 32,000. Surrey further said that the expansion proposal includes replacement with 8,000 seat-facilities of Bedser stand and boosting the capacity of OCS stand.

Richard Gould, the club’s chief executive said, “Our business has taken off over the last five years and our reserves have quadrupled in size along with significantly higher profits.”

“This has largely been driven through T20 cricket and an increase in our non-match day business, but sales for international cricket also remain very strong. Most of our major games now sell out, either for county cricket or international cricket, and we need more seats to meet demand,” he said

Initiation in 2019

The project will be initiated in late 2019 after the completion of 2019 World Cup which is scheduled in England. The final of ‘mini-World Cup’ is all set to take place at this venue and when further asked as to why initiation will take after two years time, Richard Thompson, the chairman said, it was an appropriate time to move towards creating a larger stadium.

On Surrey’s website, he said, “The time is now right for cricket to think on a bigger scale. We have already received a positive response from early discussions with the ECB and our landlord, the Duchy of Cornwall. We will now work up more detailed proposals and financial models to share with our wider group of stakeholders.”

The MCC, which owns Lord’s, is reported to be consulting members about proposals to raise its own capacity.