The Road to The Rose Bowl (1987–2001)

by Andrew Renshaw, Editor, Hampshire Handbook

THE road to The Rose Bowl was fraught with diversions and problems before the first match was played there in May 2001. So when, and why, did Hampshire set out on the long and arduous journey?

The bulldozers that moved in on Southampton’s old County Ground in October 2000 did not meet with much resistance from the splendid, ancient pavilion at Northlands Road. Members and spectators had known for years that the buildings and the facilities, from the car parking to the toilets, were not suitable as a sporting venue: acceptable for ordinary days of county cricket, perhaps, when the spectators just outnumbered the stewards, but not for the more popular games in the cricket calendar such as tourist matches, one-day semi-finals and World Cup games.

The realisation of the antique ground’s drawbacks, and the drive to do something positive, came shortly after Tony Baker became chief executive of Hampshire CCC in 1986. Mark Nicholas told the story in an article in the Daily Telegraph in 1996.

“In 1987 … Tony Baker asked Desmond Hayward, a committee man and a Bournemouth developer, if he thought it possible to build a second tier over the car park. Baker, new to office, realised the suffocating limits to any expansion at the aged and cramped ground. For one thing, only 200 cars could park in a part of the town jammed with residential property, for another, it seated a maximum of 4,500. It had been there since 1884 and was falling apart. Hayward’s verdict: Move out of town and build a new ground.

“Baker and Bill Hughes, another committee man and a chartered surveyor, scoured the land either side of the M27. Early in 1988 they wrote to the club’s 6,000 members and set up a feasibility study. By June they had their site, 40 acres at West End which, they discovered, was owned by Queens College, Oxford.”

The upshot was that Queens College offered the land on a 999-year lease and in October 1988 Eastleigh Borough Council granted outline planning permission for the main and nursery grounds. Property prices were sky high and the project could be funded by the sale of the Northlands Road site, worth perhaps £10 million. Then the property market crashed. Suddenly, the old ground was worth scarcely £3m; only interest rates were high.

However, detailed negotiations continued with the planning authority for more than a year to put the project in place, before the land could be handed over by Queens College, which first had to gain vacant possession of the land, cottages and buildings.

The first edition of the Hampshire Members’ Newsletter was issued in February 1990 and told members: “The new county ground being planned at West End will take Hampshire cricket into the 21st century with more space and modern facilities. Now the decision has been made, there is an understandable desire to make the move as quickly as possible, but the present target date for first class cricket at the new headquarters is 1995.”

The article explained that provided the detailed planning process could be completed during the first half of 1990, there might be a window of opportunity to start the massive earth moving and allow construction of the squares and outfields during the late summer and early autumn. Otherwise the work would be carried out early in 1991 “which should allow first-class cricket to be played in 1995”.

That optimism aside, the article went on to warn that “given the current uncertainty in the residential property market, it would not be beneficial for the club to commit itself to a sale [of the old ground] now, especially as most of the expenditure on the new ground will not be incurred until 1993/1994”. It ended: “Club members will be kept informed of the progress of this very important and exciting development for the future of Hampshire cricket.”

At the end of the 1990 season, which captain Mark Nicholas recorded “contained poetry and pathos, and both excited and frustrated our faithful”, the second edition of the Members’ Newsletter in October carried only a brief item under the heading ‘New ground’.

It reported: “Since the last newsletter considerable work has taken place behind the scenes, enabling useful progress to be made on the complex planning and legal matters involved. However, the continuing difficult economic climate, especially in the fields of residential and commercial property development, has inevitably slowed progress on the formulation of the comprehensive scheme of which the proposed new county ground forms only a part.”

The next newsletter in February 1991 stated that legal negotiations were continuing between the college and the planning authority, and that until these were completed, the gift of the land from the college could not be finalised. Meanwhile, work on the detailed concept of the layout and facilities had continued by the club’s architects, Broadway Malyan, preparatory to the submission of a detailed planning application.

Another season saw the elation of the thrilling NatWest victory against Surrey at Lord’s on a September evening. Tucked away in the November 1991 newsletter was a small item on the new ground: “Since the last newsletter, background work has continued, but the recession and the persistent depressed state of the property market have prevented any significant progress being made. The situation is being kept under constant review.”

The project had stalled and the two newsletters of 1992 made no mention of it. Euphoria over another Lord’s triumph diverted attention, but there was sadness over the last game played at Dean Park because of the mounting costs of staging matches there.

During the winter of 1992/1993 improvements were made to the County Ground with the installation of some plastic seats, which members were told “will be able to be removed and used at the new ground in due course”. But of the new ground itself, there was no further news.

By the end of the 1993 season, the news on the field of play was no better. Malcolm Marshall had retired. His replacement, on a three-year contract, was Winston Benjamin. In the March 1994 newsletter, members were told that Benjamin would be joined by Norman Cowans to produce a “dual strike force of real pace”. The editor wrote: “After 20 years of watching first Andy Roberts and then Malcolm Marshall operating individually, the anticipation of seeing both bowlers (Benjamin and Cowans) together in full spate should do much to quicken the pulse of Hampshire followers as the new season approaches.”

By the end of the 1994 season, it was not reported whether any spectators had been diagnosed without a pulse, but the November 1994 newsletter provided consolation for unrealised playing expectations with positive news about the new ground.

Documentation confirming the 999-year lease was signed in October 1994 and new architects had been appointed – Michael Hopkins & Partners, designers of the award-winning Mound Stand at Lord’s. The club announced it would be seeking funding from the National Lottery and Tony Baker commented: “Our priority at Hampshire has always been the development of excellence, both at grass-roots and first-class levels, and we are looking forward to developing the most up to date and prestigious county ground in the country.”

The 50-page application for Lottery funding was submitted in January 1995 at the start of the club’s centenary year celebrating 100 years since elevation to the county championship. The Centenary ’95 Appeal was also launched to raise funds. An architect’s drawing of the new ground was carried in the March 1995 newsletter, and a model showing the proposed development went on show at the County Ground that summer.

Just before the start of that season, Brian Ford took over as club chairman from Donald Rich, who had been in the chair for nine years. There was a big change too at the end of the season, when Mark Nicholas bowed out, to be replaced as captain by John Stephenson.

Behind the scenes, there was increasing concern at the time it was taking for a decision on the lottery application. Christopher Martin-Jenkins reported in the Daily Telegraph on May 15, 1995: “Hampshire are waiting optimistically for the next announcement, three weeks today. It might give them the green light to propel themselves into the front rank.” In the event, the light remained on red and it was to be another 15 months before it turned green. After meetings with Sports Council officials, a renewed application was submitted in November 1995. There were more meetings, and an even longer wait.

Finally, on August 12, 1996, the club was able to announce that the National Lottery Sports Fund had made an award of £7,176,728 – the largest so far in the southern area.

The new timetable was for earthworks to start in 1997 with a target of first-class cricket in 2001. Mark Nicholas, in his 1996 article, wrote: “The long wait came to an abrupt and thrilling end last week. Hampshire got their money and with it the opportunity to create a special sporting place in the south of England.

“Tradition and the charm which is a part of the history of the club will not be forsaken for modernism, but the 21st Century will be embraced in the vision which will bring Hampshire its own cricket village.

“Pride is a word reverberating around the county this week. Imagine, the country cousins achieving an isolated award like this. The main garland should be thrown upon Bill Hughes, now the club’s vice-chairman, whose enthusiasm, alert mind and unselfish determination to pull off the plot is a spark plug for cricket in the county.

“The other garlands should be reserved for the Sports Council and for the National Lottery, who recognised the quality of the project and rewarded its imagination. Hampshire are heading for the big time. Now the real work begins.”

The spadework began the following March 1997, when there was a ceremonial turf cutting at the site. Over the following months a further 290,000 tonnes of soil were shifted to create the two playing areas. The squares were sown to provide 20 pitches on the main ground and 14 on the nursery ground.

Members were to have taken their first look at the ground in March 1998, but a wet winter meant the visit had to be postponed until the September. Those who did get to West End had to brave steady rain under umbrellas.
Meanwhile, the freehold of the 7.68-acre County Ground site at Northlands Road was offered to bidders by February 25, 1998, with vacant possession promised for October 31, 2000. It was sold to Berkeley Homes (Hampshire) Ltd for over £5m, to be paid in stages, with in-built increases to allow for any rise in the house price index: that meant a final figure of £5,735,000 was ultimately received.

However, while the housing index was rising, so too were construction costs generally, and the lottery award provided no allowance for inflation, although there had been indications that it was to have done so.
The project was now moving ahead at the new ground, with construction work starting on the nursery ground pavilion and golf club house in December 1998. But work was temporarily halted in the summer of 1999 when the contractors, Grist Construction Ltd, went into liquidation.

The golf course was opened in late August 1999, and the clubhouse and the nursery ground pavilion were finally opened by Trevor Brooking, chairman of Sport England, in May 2000.

Meanwhile, work had started in January 2000 on the main pavilion, atrium and cricket academy, with a planned contract period of 63 weeks. Even if all went according to plan, completion would be only just in time for the start of the 2001 season.

In the event, there were delays in the design, procurement and delivery of the steel structures; in August 2000 one of the steel masts on the cricket academy collapsed; while the 12 months from March 2000 were the wettest since records began.

Construction delays, however, were only the visible part of the problem. Costs were mounting, and with no extra award to cover inflation, which in 1991 amounted to £2.2m on the project, elements had to be scaled down, with consequent delays and additional professional fees.

The search for a major sponsor for the venue as a whole also failed to bear fruit, which left a further substantial hole in the finances.

As the wet winter of 2000/2001 progressed, Hampshire’s financial position became increasingly soggy. After Brian Ford resigned as chairman in October 2000, the new chairman, Rod Bransgrove, “reviewed almost every aspect of the entire development”, as he told members in a letter sent in advance of the 2001 AGM.

At the same time, a review of the overall management structure of the club concluded that the days of management decisions being in the hands of the members’ committee were numbered – a view which the committee itself shared. As Rod Bransgrove said: “However well intentioned, it is inappropriate that committees of part-time individuals are running what is becoming a complex business, whether in tandem, or in place of, or indeed in conflict with, its executives.”

The proposal to take the club into the embrace of a privately owned company was approved unanimously by the members’ committee on February 20, 2001, and overwhelmingly by members at the packed AGM on March 26, 2001.

The method by which this happened was that the club, which had become a Friendly Society only after a decision at the 2000 AGM, converted to a private company limited by shares. That company then became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hampshire County Cricket Ground Company Limited, which was originally incorporated in 1894 for the purpose of acquiring the Northlands Road ground. Various safeguards such as a ‘golden share’ were incorporated into the new corporate structure to ensure that the interests of Hampshire CCC members are protected.

A share placing would raise a guaranteed £4m which was underwritten by the new chairman, and a further £1m was due from other sources. These funds allowed the completion and fitting out of the cricket academy, atrium and health and fitness suite.

The final cost of the Rose Bowl when the county started playing there in 2001 was estimated at £24m, of which approximately £5m was still needed after the latest round of funding.

The ambition was to create a venue that would bring international cricket to Hampshire within the near future. But in the winter after the county left Northlands Road in October 2000, and before the first game at The Rose Bowl in May 2001, there were times when it seemed possible that the whole venture might founder.

But at the March 2001 AGM, judging from the response of the large turnout of members, the chairman’s vision of creating “one of the best cricket stadiums in the world” was embraced by Hampshire’s cricket community.          

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