The first professional-grade cricket stadium in Georgia — and fourth in the United States — is headed southwest of Atlanta.
The founders of a cricket academy and professional team in New Jersey have acquired a 45-acre site next to Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange from Selig Enterprises, according to a press release. The group has proposed building a 10,500-seat stadium regulated by the International Cricket Council, as well as a FIFA-regulated soccer field and a hotel.
The developer plans to break ground on the stadium this fall, with a completion date planned for the first quarter of 2027, according to the release. It will become the first privately owned cricket stadium in the U.S., with the other three being county or city-owned, the development group said.
The group estimates the stadium will cost north of $50 million. By comparison, Buford High School’s recently completed Philip Beard Stadium cost $62 million. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction has yet to appear in the Troup County property deeds.
Stadium founder Siddharth Das said in the release that LaGrange was the perfect location because of its mild, year-round climate and proximity to the Atlanta airport. LaGrange is about 70 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta.
The site is part of Selig Enterprises’ larger 180-acre mixed use community in LaGrange called Sora, where it intends to build office, apartments, homes and retail space. A 124-room Marriott hotel is also under construction on the site. In a statement, Selig Principal Greg Lewis said entertainment is a driving force for mixed-use developments.
Credit: TVS
Credit: TVS
“The LaGrange Cricket Stadium brings international visibility, new visitors and economic opportunity to the region,” Lewis said.
Cricket, which for decades has remained a popular sport in South Asia, England, Australia, the Caribbean and Southern Africa, has seen a surge in investment over the last several years in expanding its reach in the United States. The U.S. played host to its first major ICC event last year, a watershed moment in further popularizing the sport stateside.
A professional league for the shortest form of cricket was established in 2023, which now consists of six teams from cities including Los Angeles, New York and Dallas. Plans to build stadiums in Seattle and across California are in motion. Infrastructure has expanded, with plans to build stadiums in Seattle, California and now Atlanta underway.
Atlanta has long had a large community of cricket players and fans. Within the last several years, sprawling fields dedicated to both recreational and professional cricket leagues opened in Forsyth County, and minor league cricket team Atlanta Fire Cricket was established. Last year, New Jersey professional cricket club NJ Blackcaps, which was founded by Das, became the Atlanta Blackcaps when it began participating in the United States Premier League.
This isn’t the first time a cricket stadium has been proposed in metro Atlanta. In 2019, a Dallas-based investment company went under contract to purchase Gwinnett Place Mall to transform it into a cricket stadium, but the plan did not pan out.
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