Glamorgan Cricket Club hope to start redevelopment work on their Sophia Gardens ground this autumn after being awarded an Ashes Test match for 2009.
Glamorgan beat a challenge by Old Trafford to host the game, providing a £7.5m redevelopment of the ground is given the go-ahead.
The planned redevelopment will treble the current 5,500 capacity of Sophia Gardens which stands in city park land.
Cardiff Council is due to decide on the plans on 10 May.
The five-day Ashes matches are among the highest profile in international cricket.
"It will be a loan invested in bringing millions of pounds into Cardiff"
To fund their stadium expansion, Glamorgan need financial assistance from both the Welsh Assembly Government and Cardiff Council.
Council officials have said assistance is likely to be in the form of a loan, rather than a grant.
Elgan Morgan, executive member for environment and transport, said: "We are investigating the option of giving a loan to Glamorgan Cricket Club.
"They will be repaying that and it will be a loan invested in bringing millions of pounds into Cardiff."
He added the council was not under pressure to approve the ground redevelopment, despite it being announced Cardiff would stage an Ashes Test if work was carried out.
Mr Morgan said: "The planning committee will be making its decision on planning rules and regulations as it always does. It will have to stick by the law otherwise it will be open to challenge."
'Economic benefits'
Tourism chiefs in Cardiff said the Ashes Test would boost visitor numbers and raise Wales' profile world-wide.
Peter Cole of Capital Regional Tourism said: "It certainly will bring a lot of money - we know the FA Cup final is bringing up to £10m into the region.
"There's the obvious economic benefits of the game while it's happening - the visitors, there's the profile of Wales and Cardiff on TV and the third area is the reinforcement of the Wales brand message that we have a passion for sport."
But there has been opposition to expansion plans, which would see a new pavilion and four new stands built at the current Sophia Gardens site.
Some nearby residents have raised concerns about car parking and the impact on the park land surrounding the cricket ground.
Dyfed Huws said: "This is going to be a massive commercial development on Grade II listed park land and the timing before the planning application early next month is interesting to say the least."
But Cardiff Council leader Rodney Berman said those issues could be resolved before 2009.
He added: "We've got three years before the Ashes Test is supposed to be coming to Cardiff, I'm sure we can deal with all those matters in that timescale."
^ Back to top | BBC Sport Home | BBC Homepage | Contact us | Help | ©
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~00~RS~)