The socio-material negotiations of temporary sport stadia: Global sport, local democracy, and the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium

This study examines the development of Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, a temporary modular venue constructed for the 2024 International Cricket Council Men's T20 World Cup in New York. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory and a Project Life Cycle framework, the study analyzes how institutions and power shaped the ways heterogeneous actors negotiated stadium development. Using primary and secondary sources, we trace how the roles of the International Cricket Council, Cricket West Indies, the US local organizing committee, Nassau County officials, community groups, environmental regulations, and material technologies impacted project development. Results reveal how project feasibility was socio-materially and politically produced. The International Cricket Council's commercial goals, leadership over the US organizing committee, demands of the Indian mediascape, and local political and regulatory landscapes influenced the project's development, while simultaneously constraining and halting alternative proposals. Our results question the political neutrality of the Project Life Cycle, whereby accelerated mega-event timelines privileged global sport priorities and marginalized community members and environmental regulations. This research demonstrates that the building of temporary sport stadia is not merely a technical project management exercise; rather, it is a negotiated and unequal process by which global sport priorities, project timelines, and institutional power determine whose interests shape facility development and the longer-term local impacts.