With 2024 Cricket World Cup complete in East Meadow, impact to be felt across Nassau County

From June 3 to June 12, cricket took over Nassau County. A 34,000 seat stadium was built in Eisenhower Park for the 2024 Cricket World Cup, and many resident who live and work nearby the park were concerned with what kinds of impacts the tournament will have on local communities.

Issues like road closures, the park shutdown and traffic were major topics of concern. However, many may have overlooked some of the potential benefits that Nassau County can gain from hosting the tournament.

Nassau County will be receiving $2.7 million dollars in direct revenue from hosting the tournament. County Legislator Tom McKevitt acknowledged that he knew hosting the tournament would be a huge undertaking and a temporary inconvenience, but his ultimate goal is to make Eisenhower Park look better after the tournament than it did before.

McKevitt and the Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Museums Darcy Belyea, said that improvements to the “Let All The Children Play,” park along Merrick Avenue, will be coming as well as a complete renovation of the batting cages which have been closed for years. The ICC is also installing a brand new irrigation system in the field where the stadium was built, making it look greener and better when the stadium is taken down in July.

But, it’s not just improvements to the park. The tournament is benefitting the county in more ways than one. The hotel industry has seen an increase in revenue and room bookings as well, over the duration of the tournament. Belyea said that rooms across Long Island have been completely booked up because of the tournament.

Matthew Neugeboren, the director of sales at the Courtyard Marriot in Westbury provided insight about the increase in revenue that the hotel has generated because of the tournament, by comparing sales to previous years.

“I mean year over year, we have seen a 20 percent increase in revenue this year, and certain days we have seen a 100 percent increase in food and beverage revenue at the hotel,” Neugeboren said. “What you also have to think about is that this is the time of year that the Belmont Stakes usually happens, so we’re comparing it to a time that already has a busy event going on.”

The room bookings across Nassau County have not only generated revenue for the hotels, but also for the county itself.

“The hotel-motel tax is a tax on every room that a visitor has to pay — a percentage of that money comes to the county, per New York state law,” Belyea said. “Our own law provides that a percentage of that money goes to us hiring a tourism and promotion agency, goes to the minority and the majority to be able to fund community projects. So it to me, is like bonus funds that comes into us quarterly and imagine what that second quarter is going to look like with every hotel being booked in June.”

The last Cricket World Cup was held in Australia two years ago and generated $150 million dollars. Belyea said she was proud that Nassau County was center stage for a tournament that generates 1.9 billion viewers around the globe.

“Nassau is back and it’s open for business, and I’m really excited about it,” Belyea said.