Old Trafford Cricket Ground — Attraction in Trafford

Review for stadium, match days T20 ¼ finals Sep 25 and T20 v Yorks Jul 25 Increadible atmosphere generated by the crowd, helps when Lancs Win (not v Yorks - Birstow astounding innings). In general, good off field entertainment and, tbh you can see Lancs are trying here with free bucket hats, badges, Lanky Mascot and facepainting etc. However, Lancs fail, miserably IMHO, with many food & beverage outlets simply woefully understaffed. Queues for all beverages are a spectating preventative 15 - 25 minute wait. In a match with just circa 150 minutes of actual live play, that becomes completely unacceptable considering the very unnecessarily strict limitation on food and drink you are permitted to bring in. So they want you buying their food and drink, they provide facilities to do so, they simply don't staff them. Staff, marshalling, gate staff, food , beverages etc are 100% chalk and cheese - The better side of the staff, are very, very good ... friendly, engaging, professional whilst willing to have a giggle too - well done. The unfortunate flip side of this, is the way too many staff that are surly, unnecessarily abrupt borderline rude. These team members are seriously not suitable for customer facing roles in any regard. I really don't blame these members of the team, the blame here squarely lies with what must be a very weak recruitment policy, shortlisting and training, because it is abundantly obvious that these members of the team, should not be in these roles. Toikets next, a difficult situation I accept, but just about acceptable in quantity but need some supervision and orderly queuing and some regular cleaning for sure! Next, the scoreboard and digital 'ticker' info. Effectively there is no scoreboard. Way. WAY too frequently there is no score, wickets, overs, battters, required ... they are replaced by slow motion or still replays of zero action, just a face, a stance or a player doing nothing. I accept you want replays quickly of wickets and boundaries but when not, the full scoreboard should ALWAYS be up with breaks only to show wickets or boundaries. A simple fix. Seems like a lot, but of course due to the fact that most visits will have you there all day, there is a lot that needs to be adequately provided. Ticket prices are not insignificant so spectators are seriously checking value for money Lancs playing and support staff generally providing entertainment, but significant work to be done off field to ensure Old Trafford becomes the world class facility...

The site was first used as a cricket ground in 1857, when the Manchester Cricket Club moved onto the meadows of the de Trafford estate.9] Despite the construction of a large pavilion (for the amateurs—the professionals used a shed at the opposite end of the ground), Old Trafford's first years were rocky: accessible only along a footpath from the railway station, the ground was situated out in the country, and games only attracted small crowds. It was not until the Roses match of 1875 that significant numbers attended a game. When W. G. Grace brought Gloucestershire in 1878, Old Trafford saw 28,000 spectators over three days, and this provoked improvements to access and facilities.[10]

In 1884, Old Trafford became the second English ground, after The Oval, to stage Test cricket: with the first day being lost to rain, England drew with Australia.[11] Expansion of the ground followed over the next decade, with the decision being taken to construct a new pavilion in 1894.[12]

The ground was purchased outright from the de Traffords in 1898, for £24,372, as crowds increased, with over 50,000 spectators attending the 1899 Test match.[12]

In 1902, the Australian Victor Trumper hit a hundred before lunch on the first day;[13] Australia went on to win the Test by 3 runs—the third-closest Test result in history.[14

Crowds fell through the early 20th century, and the ground was closed during the First World War; however, in the conflict's aftermath, crowd numbers reached new heights. Investment followed throughout the inter-war period, and during this time, Lancashire experienced their most successful run to date, gaining four championship titles in five years.[16]

During the Second World War, Old Trafford was used as a transit camp for troops returning from Dunkirk, and as a supply depot. In December 1940, the ground was hit by bombs, damaging or destroying several stands. Despite this damage—and the failure of an appeal to raise funds for repairs—cricket resumed promptly after the war, with German PoWs being paid a small wage to prepare the ground. The 'Victory Test' between England and Australia of August 1945 proved to be extremely popular, with 76,463 seeing it over...

Attended greenday yesterday and had a great night! Was quite nervous after reading many negative reviews for this venue. Starting at the beginning when we arrived to queue up we had to find our own way to the back of the queue as staff didn’t seem to know which direction it was going in. It was well set up with staff guiding us to snake the queue round and the road was closed plenty of security and police around. The queue went down quickly we arrived 30 mins before doors opened and once they opened it took 15 mins to get in. I agree with other reviewers that the security is not good enough. They quickly glanced in our bags didn’t scan us. Manchester should know better the importance of high security. You were kind of safe based on luck it wouldn’t be hard for the wrong person to get into this venue. It was also evident the poor security as many people were smoking cannabis in the venue. Once we arrived in the venue I was quite impressed with the amount of merch stalls and food and drink vendors. Wasn’t any queues at all. Also plenty of toilets. Although I figured out there was some extra toilets behind some other ones that you wouldn’t really know were there as no signage! Later on in the night it got busier and you would need to queue for around 5-15 mins for anything which isn’t bad. You did have to walk the whole way around the standing area to get back to your spot as there was a one way system in place. Slightly annoying but unless you have a health issue it should be no problem. Concert was amazing but that’s not what I’m reviewing. Once the concert ended we were pretty much stood there for 20 mins slowly crawling our way out. I agree there needs to be more/ bigger exit points as if there was an emergency it would be chaos and people would get knocked over. There was only two exit points for the standing area to my knowledge. Overall I would probably come again but the main issue with the venue/ security companies hired is that it’s not good enough. Picture is of waiting to leave after...