Oakland Coliseum
Converting a legacy stadium for elite cricket performance
Chicago, USA

Converting an existing multi-use stadium into a world-class cricket venue presents challenges well beyond surface replacement.

 The Oakland Coliseum was configured for baseball with legacy infrastructure, constrained tolerances, and limited opportunity for permanent structural changes. The Field of Play needed to accommodate drop-in natural turf cricket wickets while maintaining playability, broadcast requirements, and safe interfaces with surrounding stadium operations. 

Key challenges included integrating temporary and removable cricket infrastructure, protecting existing turf during construction phases, managing precise tolerances for wicket installation, and coordinating works across multiple mobilisations, bump-in, and bump-out stages without compromising turf quality or schedule certainty. 

The drop-in wickets that were used for the 2024 Cricket World Cup in New York were required to be relocated across the country to Oakland (3,000miles/4,700kms). The time for the wicket relocation was happening during winter in New York, meaning the wickets were under a layer of snow.

SPORTENG provided specialist cricket Field of Play design services tailored to the unique requirements of Major League Cricket and the operational constraints of the stadium.

Our role covered defining the project scope and developing the required documentation for the temporary drop-in wicket nursery and the installation of the turf wickets within the Coliseum to maximise the boundaries.

SPORTENG also supported the full tender phase, assisting Major League Cricket with technical clarity. This included responding to tender RFIs, reviewing submissions, attending interviews, and delivering a clear recommendation based on capability, methodology, and risk management.

During delivery, our designs enabled a staged approach covering wicket transportation, installation, irrigation coordination, turf reinstatement, and post-event bump-out works. This ensured the playing surface met cricket performance expectations while remaining compatible with the stadium’s broader operational needs.

The Oakland Coliseum project successfully transformed an iconic American stadium into a competition-ready cricket venue, supporting Major League Cricket’s rapid growth in the US market.

Oakland Coliseum after reconfiguration

Before its first match last year, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee spoke at a press conference, welcoming Major League Cricket to the Coliseum, declaring, “Let me thank all the coaches, let me thank the teams, league organisers, everyone for choosing Oakland. I want to thank the league for investing $3 million into improving the fan and player experience at the Coliseum. We are deeply grateful,”

The mayor was joined on stage by Major League Cricket CEO Johnny Grave, Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan and former Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

“We’re going coast to coast. It’s the first-time cricket of this level has been played on the West Coast of America,” says Grave. “You can walk through any park in the city of Fremont on a weekend ,and you will see that the fields are packed. We have folks, we have India and Pakistan, Afghanistan, they were from the UK, Australia, Jamaica, and of course, our Americans, and it’s really taken root,” he said.  

Source: Major League Cricket kicks off 2025 season with West Coast debut at Oakland Coliseum

The Unicorns, a cricket franchise, are poised to host matches next season at the venue. Unicorns co-owner Anand Rajaraman mentioned that they “[…] definitely want to continue playing there. We would like to play more games there next season. We’re confident it will happen, just need to finalise some things.”

If the Coliseum does become a regular ground for cricket, grandiose plans are envisioned. “My dream would be to see Australia play India at the Coliseum, that would be quite incredible,” Rajaraman said.

Source: Major League Cricket Set To Continue At Iconic Oakland Coliseum Amid India-Australia Dreams

SPORTENG’s involvement ensured the Field of Play performed as intended, with natural turf surfaces, drop-in wickets, and supporting infrastructure designed specifically for elite cricket use. The project demonstrated how global cricket standards can be delivered within existing stadium assets through careful engineering, agronomic understanding, and construction-aware design.

Building on the success of Grand Prairie Stadium, this project further strengthened SPORTENG’s role as a trusted international partner for cricket stadium conversions, capable of delivering technically robust solutions under tight timelines and complex site conditions.