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With Townsville's Riverway Stadium having played host to AFL and cricket at local, regional, state and national levels since its development in 2007, Townsville Cricket President Peter Fry wants the venue upgraded with lighting for night games.

As reported by the Townsville Bulletin, Fry fears that without cyclone-rated lighting poles to illuminate the venue, it cannot be used to host cricket or AFL matches after dark.

Fox told the regional newspaper “we’ve been speaking about it for a long time and as time goes on we will miss out on opportunities and next year is a big opportunity.

“The men’s World Cup is on the back end of next year and we’re going to have all the big sides in Australia, and we could miss out on practice matches or lead up matches or the opportunity to have those kinds of games based here.

“We are also under pressure from the likes of Mackay and Cairns, who have got the light but are not the same standards as Riverway.”

Fry said the existing lighting had deteriorated to a point that the Andrew Symond’s U17 cup, usually played as a mixture of day and night games, now had to be held during daytime.

He added that Cricket Australia had tabled presentations to Townsville City Council, but funding for the project - which he estimated as costing about $8 million - had yet to be allocated.

Sam Cox, a mayoral candidate for the upcoming City Council elections, noted “Queensland Cricket has already confirmed Townsville could host international Test cricket and domestic Big Bash League and Women’s BBL games if the lighting was brought up to broadcast standard, but the council refuses to support the upgrade."

A Townsville City Council spokesman confirmed detailed engineering assessments looking at the installation of international standard lighting for broadcasting future events had been completed recently.

Maintenance work on each light tower at the venue to improve intensity of lights to support cricket and football had also been done in December.

However, the Townsville Bulletin quoted the City Council spokesman stating “Council will continue to work with Cricket Australia, the AFL and the State Government on the potential for co-funding the future lighting upgrades."

Townsville Enterprise Chief Executive Patricia O’Callaghan said it was “important to have the appropriate infrastructure” to support strong cricket and AFL events.

O’Callaghan concluded "a vibrant and diverse events calendar is a key component of ensuring our city and region is one that is highly liveable and attractive to visit.

“We would be supportive of this initiative and working through the necessary requirements with the relevant organisations to ensure we put our best foot forward to secure these events.”

Images: Townsville's Riverway Stadium (top, courtesy of Townsville City Council) and from the air (below, courtesy of Cox Architecture).

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