Plans for a new grandstand at Wade Park were designed in 2017 ... so why hasn't it happened?

In 2017 new designs for what would come to be known as the Carl Sharpe Indoor Cricket Centre were made public.

In them contained an artist's impression of the facility which included plans for an additional grandstand which would sit next to the existing stand on the Lords Place side of the park.

One year later and council had taken another step towards turning this vision into reality as Clarke Keller Architects were brought on board.

Further designs were created and published in the agenda for the sport and recreation policy committee meeting on September 4, 2018.

"Council has also developed preliminary plans with Clarke Keller Architects that enable a future grandstand to be constructed to the south of the existing grandstand in relation to the proposed new indoor cricket building," the agenda read.

"Councillors will note that the field edge fence is in the current location, but the field edge seating and upper grandstand are based on the future reconfiguration for a full oval width of 132 metres should that be determined to be required in the future."

This proposed upgrade then made its way into the proposed budget plan for 2019/20, but noted the project was unfunded and would rely on additional government grants for what was expected to cost roughly $2 million.

"The cricket centre is funded both by grant funding and from council resources," a council statement at the time read.

"The proposed grandstand is 100 per cent grant dependent."

This was as far as the idea got. So what happened?

Mr Hamling held the position of sport and recreation committee chairman when the project was being developed and recalled the reasons why a big push for funding was never sought.

"At that time, we didn't have the Orange Sports Precinct going," he said.

"If there was no sporting precinct we probably would have gone chasing that infrastructure. But the money came so we left Wade Park as it is."

In June 2019 $25 million was secured for the sports precinct.

Discussions were held with Federal Member for Calare, Andrew Gee regarding a new grandstand, which resulted in $100,000 worth of new seating for the existing stand.

Wade Park has also undergone renovations to the lighting and changerooms.

High profile cricket matches have been played at Wade Park in recent years - including a Sydney Premier first grade match and WNCL games - with Mr Hamling declaring the facilities the "best west of the Blue Mountains".

But he questioned whether a handful of major cricket games each year warranted a new stand, given rugby league would almost completely move to the sports precinct once completed.

"You can bring in things like shade structures for major events, you can hire them. At the moment, Wade Park is sufficient," he said.

"If a future council down the road somehow got some money for it, those plans are ready to go.

"Especially around (state and federal) election times, you never know what can happen."

The Orange mayor confirmed that no funding for a new grandstand would be sought until construction on the sports precinct had been completed.