Representatives of Otago Cricket and Otago Country Cricket will meet the Central Otago District Council this morning to discuss the future of the venue and whether the council is prepared to put resources into upgrading the facilities.
Otago Country Cricket chairman and passionate Molyneux Park advocate Malcolm Jones has prepared an economic impact report which he hopes will provide a "ballpark" figure on how much cricket was worth to the region this season.
"I am neither qualified or have the time to complete a comprehensive economic impact report but these will give us all a ballpark idea," he said.
"I’ve talked to a lot of people and sourced a lot of information to arrive at these figures which I believe is a fairly conservative figure."
Jones believes cricket contributed about $220,000 to the local economy.
The Volts had a three-day training camp in the town and played two games at the venue in late December which he estimated pumped $61,000 into the economy.
Earlier this week, Volts coach Rob Walter voiced a desire to spend more time in Alexandra in order to better prepare his side for next season.
The wicket block and practice pitches at Molyneux Park are excellent and a credit to groundsman Andrew Douglas. Walter is keen to utilise the facilities, particularly early in the season.
But while the playing surfaces are top drawer, the rest of the venue is in need of an upgrade to meet New Zealand Cricket’s warrant of fitness criteria, Jones said.
"There have been some issues around the size of the changing rooms which we are hopefully going to address [with the council today] and explain what the minimum requirements are as far as the warrant of fitness is concerned.
"There needs to be work done with the changing rooms and with staffing levels at games."
The sight screens need upgrading as well. While it all sounds costly, the cost of doing nothing could mean Molyneux Park dropped off the domestic schedule, Jones said.
"It is not do this or lose cricket. But it is sort of starting to get a bit like that.
"We are competing with Southland, North Otago and there has been major work done at the Queenstown Events Centre on the drainage."
Otago Cricket Association chief executive Mike Coggan said Molyneux Park remained a valuable asset for the association but it needed to be fit for purpose.
"The meeting is not so much about the quality of the outfield and main pitch blocks because they are very good," he said.
"But if we wanted to play regular four-day cricket there, we don’t think we would be able to do so with the current facilities on offer.
"And we’ve been discussing, in terms of strategy, where the best place to play our first-class cricket is to ensure we get four full days so we give ourselves every chance of winning games. You can’t win games in two days when it rains for two days."
The last time Otago played a first-class game at Molyneux Park was in March 2004 against Sri Lanka A. The development of the University Oval in Dunedin made it hard to justify returning to Molyneux Park for first-class games. The Alexandra venue was stripped of its warrant of fitness twice and no elite cricket was played there between January 2011 and December 2013.
