A new cricket stadium is heading to the Atlanta area, marking the first privately owned cricket stadium in the U.S.
The LaGrange Cricket Stadium will be constructed on a 45-acre parcel in Sola, Selig Enterprise’s 180-acre mixed-use community in LaGrange, according to a release.
The founders of DAS Cricket Academy and NJ Blackcaps in New Jersey are behind the forthcoming cricket stadium, which will be the fourth in the country. It will make way for an expansion for the sport, which just launched as a professional league in the U.S. two years ago.
“Ever since Major League Cricket launched in the U.S. in 2023 and the famous win for USA against Pakistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup games last summer, the popularity of the sport has grown exponentially,” Siddharth Das, founder of The LaGrange Cricket Stadium, said in the release. “With its mild, year-round climate and proximity to the Atlanta airport, LaGrange serves as the perfect location for cricket’s next expansion. We look forward to introducing this sport to a growing audience in the greater Atlanta region and showing why more than 2.5 billion people enjoy cricket worldwide.”
Das currently operates a cricket academy in New Jersey and runs professional cricket franchise teams. Traditionally, they have had to rely on different facilities and adapt them to the sport. This stadium will allow them to create a location ideal for training and competitions for international-level cricket play.
“We are in the ecosystem and something we’ve realized over the years is the lack of infrastructure,” Das told What Now Atlanta. “We were looking at locations in the New Jersey and New York areas, but cost and weather did not allow us to do what we were hoping to do. So we moved down South to the Atlanta region, where the cricket ecosystem is also built up nicely.”
The open-air stadium will break ground this fall, with plans for completion in Q1 of 2027. It will seat 10,500 and will have the ability to expand to 25,000 seats. It will also feature a FIFA-regulated soccer field and serve as an event venue.
In conjunction with the stadium, the mixed-use project will feature a hotel and a sports-focused food and beverage program. The combination of these elements will bring variety to Sola, which already features Great Wolf Lodge, a resort and indoor water park. Other additions will include office, residential units and retail.
“Entertainment is a driving force for mixed-use developments,” Greg Lewis, principal at Selig Enterprises, said in the release. “With the successful Great Wolf Lodge and forthcoming Marriott hotel, Sola has already cemented itself as an entertainment destination. The LaGrange Cricket Stadium brings international visibility, new visitors and economic opportunity to the region.”
