I dont know if anyone watched the news yesterday - our beloved
Washington Park was in the news. And Big News, at that!
With Chicago bidding for the Olympics in 2016, and the idea of
the "Olympic Stadium" in Soldier Field not flying with the
committees, Mayor Daley has decided to build the new Olympic
Stadium at... Washtington Park!
( Read the Chicago Tribune article)
( Read the Public's Reaction to the plan from the Tribune)
The idea, supposedly, is to construct a 95,000 seat stadium in
what currently constitutes Washington Park (a 350-acre area),
used for the track and field events, and the Opening and
Closing ceremonies. After the Olympics are over, the seating
will be dragged away, leaving a 10,000 seat stadium around
a "sunken area". There will be astroturf areas left behind
which will be used for "soccer and football for high schools".
Obviously, no mention was made of cricket. Is this horrible
news for us cricket fans? Will we see the end of 4
cricket-fields in Chicago in one stroke? Or can it actually
turn into something good - if we get good representation to
the city, can we end up with astroturf and grass fields
that are better maintained, that could be used for years to
come (and also have seating and restroom facilities, which
would greatly improve the place overall)?
The Olympics may only be in 2016, but this is not very far
away for us - the US Olympic Committee will decide by spring
if they have chosen Chicago for the US bid, and the IOC itself
will decide within a year. If Chicago makes the cut, one would
presume that construction would start pretty much right away,
or fairly soon anyway... which means it will directly
affect us and our league maybe as early as next summer,
definitely by summer 2008!
If we want to retain our best cricketing fields, we probably
should start working on it with the city right away! Else
cricket will just be forgotten, and we may suddenly be left
with 4 fewer cricket grounds in our city!
Written by Sadiq Yusuf
3 comments:
Adnan Ucc,
What do u think should be done to fix this? You are one of the few people who are trying to improve things in this league.
Are you going to work with league or separate or stay out of this (finding more grounds for MWCC)
Didnt get a chance to write about this earlier. This is definitely a matter of concern and Sadiq, you couldnt have said it better. This is not the time for petty politics, but for all of us to come together and work for the league. I also liked the suggestions from Tonald and a few more.
American cities rarely win, Chicago will probably lose to Madrid or some other place ;). Does anyone have any friends in Tribune / Sun Times? We have about 60 teams playing in MCC, thats about 700 players - if those statistics are posted in one of the major papers, may be that would have an impact and we would get atleast a share of WP along with soccer and football.
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