MCC withdraws Lord’s stadium renaming plan

One of the world's most sacred sporting arenas, Lord's cricket ground in St John's Wood, north London, is to be transformed in a £400m overhaul revealed to the Times by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The Vision for Lord's will see the 195-year-old ground, widely recognised as the home of cricket, get 7,500 more seats, an underground cricket school, a bigger museum and multi-million-pound luxury flats ringing the ground.

At one stage, it seemed the MCC might even sell the naming rights of the ground to help pay for the work. Cricket traditionalists would have been up in arms at  the prospect of one of the most famous names in all sport becoming adulterated by commerce, and it now appears the MCC had floated the plan to see what the reaction was before hastily pulling it this morning.

MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw had told the Times: "[Selling naming rights] is obviously an option.” This morning he told Radio Five Live: "There's no way we would rename Lord's. It's the home of cricket, the hallowed turf. It's not an option at all."

Bradshaw added: "I even have a real problem considering renaming the stands within the ground that are now dedicated to famous cricketers. It's not on the agenda, it's not on the cards and there's no way we'll be going down that path."

In recent years Arsenal made £100m from their 2004 deal with the Emirates airline to name their new Ashburton Grove stadium, and Chelsea are considering selling the name to their Stamford Bridge ground for a sum of upwards of £150m. But the recent furore at Newcastle, where fans protested at St James's Park becoming the sportsdirect.com @ St James' Park Stadium obviously gave the MCC pause for thought.

The transformation of Lord's will be carried out by architects Herzog & de Meuron, who designed the Tate Modern in London, the 'Bird's Nest' Olympic stadium in Beijing and Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena. ·