The Otago Daily Times took a quick tour of the new-look University Oval yesterday and the view from the new embankments was worth the stroll.
There is a lot more space at the top than there seems - enough room to pitch a marquee and put on a pretty decent show, according to Otago Cricket Association chief executive Mike Coggan. He is thrilled with the way the venue is shaping up.
He believes the improvements will put the University Oval on a more equal footing with Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
The project is costing around $750,000 but it will lift the capacity of the venue from 3500 to 6200. With additional temporary seating, the venue will be able to house up to 10,000.
Aesthetically, the embankments are not much to look at right now. They are just mounds of earth with barely a blade of grass.
By the time to project got to the stage where the embankments were ready for some grass seed, it was too late in the season to sow it.
That part of the project has been put on hold until early spring.
"You'll get a good thatch in a number of weeks,'' Coggan said.
"We want it to be ready in time for our first Plunket Shield fixture in [early] November. There won't be a whole lot of people sitting on the embankments then, but certainly by the first super smash game [in mid-December] it will be well and truly bedded in.''
Most of the hard work has been done. The access road to the maintenance shed still needs to be covered with asphalt and the disabled access ramp has to be altered.
An engineering firm has begun work on the frame that will support the replacement scoreboard, which Coggan hopes will be operational by mid-October.
He was not sure what would become of the current 17-year-old scoreboard or whether it would be salvaged.
"It is an asset that is owned by the council, so that will be up to them. But it is still workable. It is not at all useful for cricket but for other sports it would have some value, I reckon.''
