Cricket stadium a no-go at Santa Clara County Fairgrounds after talks fall through

SILICON VALLEY LEADERS and sports big-wigs drummed up major hype around building a national cricket stadium at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds four years ago. But talks have fallen through — and there are several takes on what went wrong.

County officials and Major League Cricket leaders started exclusively negotiating the lease of 12 acres at the fairgrounds to build and run a stadium for local, national and international play in 2022. The two parties met regularly for more than two years. But after the national league restructured — and began to grapple with an intensifying, internal power struggle — county leaders said stadium planning talks shifted to the local team, the San Francisco Unicorns, which plays at the Oakland Coliseum.