Warwickshire CEO Colin Povey praises Edgbaston upgrade

[dutchman]

The redevelopment of Warwickshire's long-time home at Edgbaston will safeguard the county's future according to the club's chief executive.


The Priory Road entrance to Edgbaston will have a more modern look

Colin Povey also insists that the wider West Midlands will benefit financially from the new facilities.

"It's a model that all of the cricket grounds have had to adopt if they wanted to retain their international status," he told BBC WM.

"The alternatives were very dark and very painful very quickly."

Povey continued: "We would have been left in a ground that's far too big for domestic cricket, without international cricket and the revenues that go with that.

"Edgbaston staging international cricket every year is worth £12 million to the regional economy which would go somewhere else, it would have gone to Cardiff, it would have gone to Nottingham."


The new-look Pavilion End includes a much-improved media centre

The rebuilding of the Pavilion End of Edgbaston, coupled with the upgrading of conference facilities and a restyling of the outside of the ground, is due to cost £30 million pounds.

When completed later this summer it will add 3,500 seats to the capacity of the ground and it is set to be ready in time for the August Test match between England and India.

"They're still on track to give us the keys to the castle at the beginning of July, equally importantly they're on budget," added Povey.

"There's a lot of work to be done but so far, so good.

"We've got a major focus on the Test match, as we've got about five weeks if we stay on programme between getting the keys and that big match."

Although some Bears members have expressed concern about some non-cricketing activities seemingly taking precedence over events on-the-field, Povey is resolved to ensuring the county make the very most of the facilities they will now have on offer.

"Whatever sport you're in these days it's very few, maybe no grounds that can solely rely on their core usage," he said.

"From our point of view we're lucky we've already got a healthy non-matchday business, we're lucky that we've got quite a bit of community use of the cricket facilities.

"We need the revenues to come in to support our cricketing ambitions and to make the stadium really work and to make it a venue of choice for as many people as possible."