The Hampshire Cricket Ground Ageas Bowl is set to be renamed as the club looks to a solar-powered future.
Hampshire Venue Ageas Bowl renamed as Utilita Bowl
The Hampshire’s home ground, the Ageas Bowl is known as the Utilita Bowl after the club agreed to a new naming-rights deal with Utilita Energy which includes the play to make the “World’s greenest cricket ground.”
The venue was originally known as the Rose Bowl when it was opened in 2001. It has been the major South Coast venue for sport, music, and Leisure, with its on-site hotels and golf course backing onto a ground that has hosted 50 men’s internationals in the past two decades, including the inaugural World Test Championship final in 2021.
The venue is scheduled to host 19 more internationals from 2025 to 2031, including for Men’s Ashes Test in 2027 and the Women’s Ashes Test in 2031, and as the host venue for Southern Brave in the Hundred, the club management recently confirmed they had been in talks with “Prospective investors,” which includes GMR Group, the co-owners of Delhi Capitals.
The plans for the ground’s “Pro-planet Partnership” include the installation of more than 1,000 solar panels. Those solar Panels would generate 25 percent of the electricity used in the stadium for the year.
According to the club statement, will save the venue a six-figure sum each year in electricity costs- as well as 80 tonnes of carbon per year, the same level of emissions produced by driving 301,855 miles in the average passenger vehicle.
“We’re delighted to partner with Utilita, a Hampshire-based business that shares our values and can now help shape our vision of creating the greenest international cricket venue in the world,” David Mann, CEO at Utilita Bowl, said.
“This is the dawn of a new era for the venue, and we’re excited by the possibilities this partnership will offer.”
The announcement comes in the same week that more than 70 local residents gathered outside the venue to protest against Hampshire’s new construction plans which include 171-home development on the ground near the local village of West End, including a budget hotel, a wellbeing center, and a care home.
“The cheapest and greenest energy is the energy we don’t use, and that’s exactly what this partnership is designed to do – cut energy usage. This support doesn’t stop at the venue itself but is extended to the over half a million visitors who walk through its doors each year.
“We will work closely with the venue to ensure they lead the way in becoming more sustainable across all aspects of their operations: from travel and match days to the day-to-day running of the ground and any ancillary developments.
“This truly is a unique, first-of-its-kind partnership in British sport,” said Bill Bullen, CEO of Utilita Energy.
