£400 Million Vision For Lord's Unveiled

After promising that the ground's name won't be changing, MCC have released pictures of what the £400 million redevelopment of Lord's cricket ground will look like.

A series of plans (PDF) depict new stands that mesh nicely with the UFO-like Media Centre, increasing the capacity of the stadium: of the existing stands, only the Mound Stand and Grand Stand would remain. The proposal's aim is to transform the stadium into a year-round facility, with some abandoned tunnels beneath the ground used to transform the Nursery End training ground into an underground village, with cricketing academy, banqueting and function rooms, a cinema, and restaurant.

The plans have been warmly welcomed by the Mayor, though there's a mixed reaction from the cricketing community: Mike Atherton likes the proposal, believing that it will turn Lord's into a "more welcoming place", while Times cricket correspondent Simon Wilde thinks the idea of "spending £400 million to shuffle the furniture" is a bad investment.

If the plans are approved and the funding in place, the new Lord's should be completed by 2021.