Cricket!
For the next two weeks, residents of Nassau County, NY are losing the use of two — yes, two — of our county parks, Eisenhower Park and Cantiague Park.
As I’ve mentioned before, Nassau County was chosen as the site of several World Cup cricket matches. A temporary stadium, capable of holding 34,000 fans, was built in Eisenhower Park. This is probably the biggest event ever hosted in Nassau County, and we’ve hosted several PGA tournaments at Bethpage State Park …
So I saw the stadium during one of my walks in the park. I posted some photos here.
Last night I took a few more photos as we drove through the park.
There was a practice match scheduled for today, and starting Monday there will be 8 matches over the next two weeks, The park will be closed for the duration, and streets around the park will be closed on match days. Spectators can park at the Nassau Coliseum (about a mile and a half from the park) and take a shuttle bus. Spectators arriving from NYC can take the Long Island Railroad to Westbury and catch a shuttle bus there. No one can enter the park unless they have a ticket to the match.
Eisenhower is located about halfway between my house and my office, and the road closures could affect my drive to work. So I’m planning to work from home on match days.
But not only are we losing the county’s biggest park for two weeks, we are also losing the county’s second-biggest park. The cricket teams are practicing in Cantiague Park.
I’ll be honest. Even though Cantiague is here in Hicksville, just 2 miles from my house, I’ve actually never been there. Guess I’m going to have to explore that park after the cricket tournament is over.
It was bad enough when a tennis tournament that is no longer held used to close a park in Binghamton that was a favorite of the late Rod Serling (and many current residents) for a week. That's nothing like the scale of what you are going to go through. But on the bright side - it gave you a topic for blog post and you may end up discovering a local park you enjoy (once you can use it).
ReplyDeleteSometimes the honor of hosting creates a world of inconvenience, but that seems to be the way of it.
ReplyDeleteNever seen a cricket game.
ReplyDeleteNot a great disruption, but at least it's of short duration. Hopefully the spectators will infuse the area with some cash.
ReplyDelete