“INCLUSIVITY” will see urinals go the way of underarm bowling in the massive upgrade of the WACA.

The WACA Ground Improvement Project will see the Inverarity and Prindiville stands replaced by one large central stand across the northern end, with construction tipped to start in September.

WACA board member Paul Collins, who was elected as a director by the membership at the last AGM, recently spotted the lack of urinals in the approved plans.

“To my disbelief I found that the general male public will not have access to a urinal on the entire northern half of the WACA ground,” Mr Collins wrote on a social media post.

“I queried this and wondered whether the female toilets were copied across as the male toilets by mistake. Nope. I am told it’s ‘modern times’ and required to address ‘inclusivity’.

He later told the Voice: “I actually believe that it has the potential to be discriminatory against men, because it makes their use of the toilets far less efficient, and we know that 86 per cent of the WACA membership are male.”

• The WACA Grounds Improvement Project will cost $155million, but they won’t spend a penny on urinals. Concept plans by element and Cox architecture

Mr Collins says stadium toilets are typically used in surges and not having urinals will make them unnecessarily packed during bathroom breaks. As a rule of thumb urinals are about twice as efficient time-wise and space-wise compared to cubicles, and are anywhere from five to 10 times more water-efficient. 

On top of the new cubicle-only design, the new members area on the northern side will also be a no-urinal zone, and it’ll have a shared sink area in between the men’s and women’s cubicles.

Mr Collins says an Islamic cricket fan had come forward with concerns about that, as shared wash areas are not acceptable to some Muslims. 

“I’m all in favour of inclusivity but stadiums need to be efficient on the toilet front as they experience use in bursts,” he said. 

“That means plenty of urinal space and some cubicles for men during a drinks break at the cricket.

“It also means dignity, privacy and consideration for men and women in their own bathroom mirror and wash basin spaces.”

He says the justification about “modern times” and “inclusivity” came direct from WACA board chair Avril Fahey, who was elected chair in December 2022.

We contacted Ms Fahey and the WACA’s communications GM Matthew Taylor to ask about the end of urinals at the cricket. 

Mr Taylor said they’re still in the final stages of working through the design and some details are still being figured out.

But we weren’t able to get any answers on whether the bathroom situation was one of those details still being rejigged.

The no-urinal design for the WACA upgrade was approved in 2022, and construction was meant to start in August, and has now been pushed back to September as the WACA seeks to sign on a builder and then get a building permit.

The $155 million ground improvement project has largely been government funded, with $140 million from the federal, state, and local governments as part of the Perth City Deal.

In the past few years major sports codes have moved away from urinals in change rooms: Both Cricket Australia and the AFL guidelines for change rooms call for urinals to be replaced with toilets so facilities can be used by any sex in an effort to grow women’s sport.

But this is the first time we’ve seen that extend to the public toilets. 

In February 2023 a New Hampshire school in the US briefly banned urinals. It was a compromise to a tangled debate over which genders should be allowed to use which bathroom, and the school board decided it’d easier to have no urinals and covered them up with plastic bags. Students protested and the urinals were reinstated 10 days later.

by DAVID BELL