World Footy News

On Veterans Day (Rememberance Day) Weekend, Broward County Florida conducted the opening ceremony for Central Broward Regional Park. A pretty boring name for a very exciting park. The CBRP includes an International cricket stadium that has covered seating for 5,000 and the ability to accommodate over 20,000 for day and night matches. The stadium could also handle AFL games on a field slightly shorter than the G, but more rounded. The CBRP also has the ability to run three full-size footy games simultaneously during the day and night. It includes netball courts, super boxes, professional changing rooms, picnic areas, water access and a kid’s water park. That’s over a 100 acres of footy heaven.

The facility is the dream of Lauderhill Mayor, Richard Kaplan. A number of years ago, Mayor Kaplan started taking note of the interest in cricket in the area due to the large immigrant population from the West Indies and South Asia. He traveled to the West Indies and really saw the opportunity for cricket and a cricket stadium. In 2002, Kaplan told the New York Times, “Cricket is going to put us on the map. Someday Lauderhill is going to be known as the cricket capital of the United States." Originally, Mayor Kaplan hoped that the cricket stadium would be able to host games during the 2007 World Cup. Unfortunately, that was not to be. Mayor Kaplan’s dream was set further back by cost overruns and a hurricane. Given all that the stadium has gone through, Kaplan is excited to see opening day finally arrive. “I am very excited. It finally shows the work that we did to create this new development in our city.”

What does a cricket stadium in Flordia mean for USFooty? USFooty President, Rich Mann, was on hand for the opening ceremony. According to Mann, “USFooty hopes this becomes one of, if not the, premier Australian Football Stadiums outside of Australia.” Mann and USFooty representatives have met with a number of officials. “I personally met with the CEO of Fort Lauderdale Convention Bureau and Visitors Centre, Mayors of Fort Lauderdale, Lauderhill and Broward County, in addition to the Director of Parks and Recreation and several members of Broward County Board of County Commissioners. I also met with the facility architect and several of the facility development and operations representatives. The city and county could not have been more enthusiastic about Aussie Rules becoming a big part of the future of the stadium.” USFooty is looking at hosting the 2009 USFooty Nationals at the oval. The local USFooty club, the Fort Laurderdale Fighting Squids, are probably the luckiest footy team in North America with access to the CBRP oval for training and home games. The first USFooty tournament to be held at the oval is slated for Spring 2008.

Will the AFL look to Florida? There is a hint that they may from the recent statement on the cancellation of the LA Game. Legendary, AFL Coach, Kevin Sheedy met with Mayor Kaplan a number of years ago and said recently of the stadium, “It makes a statement. Footy is in North America and it is here to stay. The AFL is taking notice.”

What about Australia vs Windies? Again, Mayor Kaplan is very interested in getting international cricket fixtures to the stadium. “I would hope that we could have matches that would include Australia vs. West Indies. Like many others, there are several teams I would like to see play.”

Photos of the venue are available at the website of South Florida newspaper, The Sun Sentinel.