Tired Gabba in need of facelift

We don't need more seats at the Gabba, we need better facilities. Personally, I'd prefer a slight downsize in seating, but better facilities. And get rid of the members area, hardly anyone sits there.

Members section, never filled except the ashes. Also the cricketers club has that allocation pulling capacity down. No use having a 50,000 capacity stadium filled once every 4 years. I don't think the actual facilities at the MCG are that flash, it's generally the spectacle that makes it memorable.

One of the key aims is to get the international and interstate fans to attend the tests in the various states, boosting tourism spending which helps the relevant government justify their spending on stadiums like the Gabba. Maybe we don't get crowds to the Sheffield shield games like the yanks do to mid-week baseball games because of the population size and fact that we don't have that culture. Nothing beats the buzz around Brisbane on the days leading up to the first day of the ashes, but that only happens once in four years. I thought 20/20 cricket was invented for the short attention span generation who can't manage test cricket, those games are well attended. Maybe Chicago gets those numbers because of the U.S. Unemployment population.

I think a lot of people think the 'Gabba is fine. The MCG is fine, the new Adelaide Oval is fine, the new Perth Stadium will be fine and the SCG just needs to redevelop the Bill O'Reilly stadium which give it a 50,000 capacity and about 47,000 for cricket. The Churchill/Brewongle stadium will be redeveloped but that be put off for quite a number of years. Talk of a "tired" 'Gabb and needing redevelopment just sounds like corporate welfare for Cricket Australia to me. The Gabba will have to accept its not going to get many big matches for tournaments like the world cup or the T20 world cup in AUS/NZ in 2020. Then again theres only so many semis and finals and big matches in any tournament. We already have the MCG as the cricket centrepiece with the new Perth Stadium, Adelaide Oval, SCG plus NZ hosting a quarter and semi-final. Redeveloping the 'Gabba to a 50,000+ seat is pointless as there arent enough big games that will attract crowns of 50,000+ to go around in a 50 over or 20 over world cup. Capacities for cricket: 93,000 for MCG 57,000-58,000 Perth Stadium (give 60,000 for AFL minus 2000-3000 for sight screens for cricket) 51,000-52,00 Adelaide Oval. 47,000 SCG (Once Bill O'Reilly stand is redeveloped) 35,000 'Gabba. For a country of around 24 million we just dont need more than that for cricket.

Yeah, but usually the sight screens lowers cricket capacity by 2000-3000 seats or so. Not 7000 from the 'Gabba's stated capacity of 42,000. That would make sense because the biggest AFL crowd in recent years is 37,000 so 35,000 is the biggest for cricket.

The GABBA's last redevelopment was in 2005. The GABBA went through a transformation from the early nineties up until 2005. One of the reasons for its transformation was for the GABBA to host football matches in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. And yet the GABBA is 'tired'. That'll do me.

True enough, and I was thinking they were normally 3, although I did mean a 4 Test series and no other Tests in the summer. Normally its 4 vs India and 2 against someone else.

I don’t think the issue is capacity at the ground – as others have said, the ground holds close to 40,000, and only is ever at full capacity on Day 1 of the ashes. Rather, it’s the state of the ground and the facilities – compared to other stadiums, the Gabba is a tired, outdated venue. Toilets are passable, access to the ground is pretty ordinary, food and beverage options are limited and slow – there’s not a great deal to welcome patrons to the ground, apart from the quality of what is on the field. As a Brisbane Lions fan as well, I’ve spent a fair bit of time at the stadium as well as others, and can comfortably say it’s well behind other cricket grounds in this country in terms of the spectator experience. However – the saving grace is that 22 yards in the centre of the ground, which offers the best contest between bat and ball in Australia. It’s one of the best remaining pitches in the world, where cricket is concerned. The problem cricket faces is that most stadium upgrades in this country have been funded by the AFL $. The price of that is usually a drop-in wicket. Fortunately for cricket in QLD, the Lions aren’t much of a presence here, and so don’t have the same clout that’s seen South Australia and Western Australia turn their backs on dedicated cricket squares. I think if the Gabba is to compete for allocation of matches where cricket is concerned, it needs to have a point of difference. It’s never going to have more seats than Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney. And even if it did, history has shown it wouldn’t attract the bums to fill all those extra seats anyway. So the way forward needs to be to upgrade the off-field facilities, but retain that pitch square, and sell the ground as a venue which will produce attractive, compelling cricket matches. Hopefully during this time while upgrades are happening Cricket Australia doesn’t disappear up its own a***hole and start stiffing the Gabba with allocation of matches. If it deems that having a functional wi-fi network for spectators is more important for the long-term health of the game than attractive pitches, then it might as well wave the white flag and start digging up the pitch square now.

We always have a four test series against India.

Maybe that takes in the seats that can't be filled due to the sight screens.

Population of 300 million has nothing to do with it. Chicago is a big city but it has two baseball teams. Fact is I went a game late in the season, being played during the day on a weekday between two teams that were totally out of any chance of qualifying for the finals and still 26,000 people turned up. Still doesnt change the fact that most people who go to the boxing day test are interstaters and followers of the touring team. Melbourne is a one sport town.

it certainly does ! I would refer you to my earlier comment .

"according to Cricket Australia’s high performance boss Pat Howard" Says it all really.

An MLB game lasts 3 hours on average, an ODI lasts 6+. Bigger time commitment, and given how late most D/N games finish now getting up for work the next morning alone makes it not worth it -- plus families can't really make a day of it (too late for little kids), a day game would at least have some appeal in that area. As well as AFL Melbourne also has the highest soccer attendance, the highest BBL attendance outside Adelaide (where the new stadium has done wonders in a one team town), along with far and away the highest attended test match (where the population of the Southern Stand and Members still looks pretty local to me..). Even the rugby codes do fairly well in Melbourne and that's remarkable when you consider how small a footprint they had even 10 years ago.

The GABBA was a road but still not flat enough since Johnson managed to find enough bounce to show what an overrated batting line-up India has. Naturally this upset the perennial bullies of the cricket world into making up such crap excuses

usa has a population of 300 million we have 25 million

"India whinged about it last summer, so something must be wrong." That's what I suspect is happening here. CA has to keep cricket's most lucrative tourists happy. I agree with the statement above: if common sense prevails, it should remain for at least another decade. Capacity is the least of its issues, because the eastern side of the ground is almost never opened on match days. The over-bearing security staff should be a more serious concern for CA.

Don't want the GABBA to end up like the WACA.

MLB plays 162 games in a season. Meaning 81 home games per team over 6 months. That means a LOT of midweek games yet teams still get people attending games. In 2012 I went to a Chicago Cubs vs Pittsburgh Pirates games at Wrigley Field in the middle of a week day. Even though both teams were well out of chance of postseason play 26,000 people still turned up. Unless its Aussie Rules Melbourne fans are the most fickle and uninterested fans in the country. On boxing day tests you could probably count on one hand how many people from Melbourne actually go to the MCG. Its mostly interstate people and people supporting the touring team.