The Oakland Coliseum will host matches in Major League Cricket (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
For cricket to make a splash in the Bay Area, administrators needed to dream big. They knew the fledgling Major League Cricket, a monthlong T20 tournament played in summer, had to be staged in a venue with deep roots to the region and beyond.
It may have been seen as grandiose, a pipedream that had shades of a starry-eyed idea for Central Park to host cricket that predictably fell flat, but the iconic Oakland Coliseum had for years been firmly in their sights.
With good reason. Before these beloved Bay Area institutions fled for the bright lights of Las Vegas, the Athletics and Raiders produced many famous moments on the hallowed Oakland turf.
It even has pop culture lore. Located near Interstate 880, with its stunning views of the Oakland hills in the backdrop, the old warhorse featured prominently in the critically acclaimed Hollywood blockbuster Moneyball starring Brad Pitt.
On June 12, with the ground by then converted to the unusual oval-shape dimensions of cricket with a specialised drop-in wicket marking its innards, a new chapter starts for the Coliseum when the San Francisco Unicorns hosts Washington Freedom to launch the third season of MLC.
More than 12,000 fans are expected in the terraces for what is considered a game-changer for MLC.
Backed by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, the Unicorns’ search far and wide across the Bay Area for a home base has come to an end. Temporarily, at least, with the Coliseum to host three home Unicorns games, nine overall, in a one-season arrangement.
The Unicorns have certainly made a splash as they build a brand amid the fledgling T20 competition aimed to help grow American cricket – by some metrics the second biggest sport in the world but only a minor game in the U.S.
The Coliseum announcement was widely reported, including in The New York Times, Axios and mainstream media in the Bay Area.
MLC has been mostly played in Grand Prairie in Dallas (AP Photo/LM Otero)
The first two seasons of MLC were played in Dallas, the hub of American cricket, and Morrisville in North Carolina but has importantly expanded to the west coast for the first time. The Bay Area, particularly, has a large number of South Asian expats hailing from a region that is fanatical about cricket.
“The Bay Area has the second biggest group of cricket fans in the U.S. behind New York/ New Jersey areas,” Unicorns co-owner Anand Rajaraman told me in a phone interview.
“But it’s been very hard for people in this area to actually watch the games in the first two seasons with it not being played in the Bay Area.
“It’s hard to connect with the fans if they can’t attend games. We’ve arrived now. We are here. There’s a lot of enthusiasm for the Coliseum and it will help us connect with the Bay Area.”
A lively atmosphere is hoped for the games at the Coliseum, which can hold about 40,000 fans with around a quarter of the capacity tipped as a baseline.
“We are hoping to get big crowds to the stadium,” Rajaraman said. “While this area has huge numbers of cricket fans, we only have a short window of time to tell them that the tournament is coming.
“Local marketing and creating awareness is needed. It’s a tremendous opportunity, but also a challenge.”
MLC is in its third season (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Amid such a fiercely congested sports market, with the Bay Area home to some of the country’s most famous franchises, battling for sponsorships is fierce.
The Unicorns have received a big boost ahead of the season after Qualys, a leading provider of cloud-based IT, security, and compliance solutions, was named as its major partner.
Qualys will have its logo take prime position on the front of the Unicorns’ match and
training jerseys. It is the Unicorns’ most significant commercial partnership to date.
The MLC games in the East Bay looms as a trial run for the Coliseum with the ballpark recently purchased by African American Sports and Entertainment Group, an Oakland-based group of developers and investors.
The uncertainty does mean the Unicorns are still scouting locations having previously looked closely at sites in San Jose. “We are keeping our options open only because we don’t know the future of the Oakland Coliseum and the plans of the new owners,” Rajaraman said.
The games at the Coliseum should be high-octane with the Unicorns set to unleash a squad brimming with youthful talent. Without Australian star players Pat Cummins and Josh Inglis due to Test duties, compatriots Jake Fraser-McGurk and allrounder Cooper Connolly loom as x-factors and drawcards for a Unicorns franchise building around emerging players.
The 21-year-old Connolly, who has represented Australia across formats, was unveiled as their latest signing on the back of a whirlwind where he was the co-best player of the recent Big Bash League and also made his Test debut in February in Sri Lanka.
Cooper Connolly has played for Australia across formats (Photo by Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC via Getty … More
“We want to find the young players before they go supernova,” Rajaraman said. “You can build an identity around these players and they bring a lot of excitement to these T20 leagues.”
The Unicorns are the latest partnership between Rajaraman and co-owner Venky Harinarayan. They were founding partners of early ecommerce company Junglee, which was acquired by AmazonAmazon 0.0% in 1998 for $250 million. They also later founded Kosmix, which was acquired by WalmartWalmart 0.0%, and were early investors in Facebook.
“It (ownership) has been more challenging than I thought, and it’s taken far more time than I thought,” Rajaraman said. “But it’s part of the early pains for a new league coming together.
“Things are getting exciting. Oakland is close to my heart. I hope we get big crowds for the games there. It would be great if it helps the league and cricket in the Bay Area take the next step.”