(ESPNCRICINFO) – The organisers of Major League Cricket, USA’s officially sanctioned T20 franchise league anticipated to launch in 2023, announced on Thursday the next phase of their venue development plan, in which they intend to spend approximately $110M on building or renovating a total of eight venues around the USA.

Aside from five venues already in existence earmarked for upgrades, MLC is in negotiations to secure land and build new venues at Marymoor Park in the eastern Seattle suburb of Redmond, Washington; as well as two California venues – one proposed for the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, and the other in Orange County south of Los Angeles.

“This array of venue developments in areas with significant cricket-passionate communities comes as the International Cricket Council (ICC) has identified the United States as its primary target market to expand the game with the award of co-hosting rights to the 2024 T20 Men’s World Cup,” Sameer Mehta, co-founder of Major League Cricket, said. “MLC is committed to supporting that vision alongside its long-term partner USA Cricket and we’re excited to work together to transform the landscape and opportunities for cricket to rapidly develop across the country with this infrastructure investment.”

The announcement comes following the first venue acquisition made by MLC and its parent American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) in November 2020 of AirHogs Stadium in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Grand Prairie. The former minor league baseball facility was originally due to have renovations completed for its opening as a cricket venue in 2022.

But according to multiple sources, administrators experienced logistical difficulties securing permits to begin construction work on making necessary design changes to the facility to make it suitable for cricket. As a result, MLC still has yet to break ground on any construction work, but officials have stated that construction is now anticipated to begin in April 2022.

When it opened as a baseball facility in 2008, seating capacity was 5 445, but MLC has stated that once renovations are completed it will have 7 000 permanent seats with a total capacity of 15 000, though it may be expanded to 20 000 with temporary seating for large-scale events.

The other venues currently in existence which MLC has committed to making upgrades to are Church Street Park in Morrisville, North Carolina, as well as two venues in the Houston metropolitan area: Moosa Stadium, located about 25 miles south of downtown Houston in the suburb of Pearland; and Prairie View Cricket Complex, which is located 50 miles northwest of Houston in the university town of Prairie View. Church Street Park is anticipated to have the most significant changes, with broadcast facilities and up to 3 500 permanent seats added to the facility making total capacity expandable up to 5 000.

According to an MLC spokesperson, changes to each of the existing facilities will cost upwards of $3M per venue.