HARE-BRAINED SCHEME

 

Karnataka government’s plan for a 75-acre 60,000 seater cricket stadium with a range of amenities including guest houses, hotels, convention hall, multiple stadia must be seen as the stupidest venture in recent times. Trend worldwide is for stadia being compact, cozy, smart and spectator friendly, not big, dull and useless after an event. Technology too is playing its part but I’ll come to that later. The number one problem for any stadium is maintenance and revenue generation. When there are no events, it is a white elephant. KSCA, in Bengaluru where Karnataka government wants to splurge all-too scant money, grappled with this problem for decades. The space beneath the stands was rented out to multiple agencies –Land Army, Bank, Godowns, travel agent, super market, club house activities, etc. It was literally a hand-to-mouth existence as international matches, which filled the stadium and brought in money through hosting, ticket sales, hoardings, etc came through only once in 3 or 4 years. IPL saved the day as the stadium was utilized annually for at least 7 days of matches and 45 to 60 days as home team base. These brought in massive revenue. Corporates too splurged on high-priced tickets to host government, other officials and families. Was there a quid pro quo? No idea. Maybe not immediately either. The bottom line is, maintaining a stadium is a herculean task, even if huge funds from IPL helped BCCI associations build amazing infrastructure (not just stadia). Elsewhere, some of these issues have been somewhat addressed. The Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro had the largest seating capacity (2,00,000) in the world. But after a couple of tragic incidents and need for safer, greater comfort it was trimmed down to just 75,000 by the 2016 Olympics. Interestingly, it was held up as a glorious venue when the Fifa World Cup was hosted in 1950. It was built by the government and constantly refurbished and renovated before the 2016 Olympics. But the true challenge of managing a gigantic stadium came soon after. Seats, sofas, refrigerators, TV screens, air conditioners, fire extinguishers, lighting systems, doors, windows were either ripped off or stolen. Power was shut off as pending bills ran up to more than a million dollars. Huge chunks of the soccer turf were stolen and the playing field browned out as neither the stadium committee nor the Olympics committee took ownership. Vandalism and violent robberies left the stadium desolate looking. In India, Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, once famed for its 100,000 Plus seating capacity,was brought down to a more manageable 65,000 by 2011. Another massive stadium, the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, built with Australian government funds was venue for 1956 Olympics and a few events of 2000 Olympics. Fortunately, MCG has been regularly hosting events like Rugby League, Rugby Union, Soccer, Australian Rules Football (AFL), 2006 Commonwealth Games, music concerts (Taylor Swift, Billy Joel, David Bowie, Madonna, Police, Paul Macartney, Guns N’Roses, Eminem, Ed Sheeran, et al), religious events, etc and many of these have drawn crowds in excess of 90,000. Thus, MCG is a well-used, well-oiled cricket venue and maintaining it has not been as big a challenge. Meanwhile, Karnataka government wants to rival the Rs 800 crore Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The crucial difference is the Modi stadium is owned by Gujarat Cricket Association, not the state government. It was initiated when Modi was president of GCA. Besides a number of international matches, two IPL finals, Day-night Test and other cricket events, the stadium, home to IPL team Gujarat Titans, has also been venue for two Coldplay concerts, Namaste Trump political event, National Games of India, etc. While GCA will need to really be on its toes to maintain the venue, it would be worth pointing out that the state of Gujarat gets a massive share of BCCI funds when compared to Karnataka. Gujarat has three cricket associations (GCA, Baroda Cricket Association and Saurashtra Cricket Association) and therefore in real terms the state gets three times the share of Karnataka. Elsewhere in the world, the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California being primed for the 2026 Fifa World Cup and the 2028 Olympics is the last word in hi-tech, uber luxury sports stadia. But it cost USD 5.5 billion (1 billion USD is close to Rupees 9000 crore. So, do the math) These apart, technology will take the wind out of the sails of high capacity behemoth stadia, especially by the time Karnataka government can get its sports complex going. Already one of the latest and hottest names in the business is Immersed Reality (a.k.a. Shared Reality) COSM experience. A viewer can be thousands of kilometres away but still get that ringside stadium/arena feel with COSM. Additionally, you get to eat, drink and soak into the atmosphere in air conditioned comfort. America’s NFL which experimented with it last year, has just signed a multi-year deal, as have the NBA and UFC. There is no doubt that 1000s of COSM venues will open up in India as soon as sports bodies open up to the technology and work on legal, financial agreements. Corporates might then start booking entire COSM domes instead of hospitality boxes for IPL! Thus Karnataka government which does not have money even to fix potholes, street lights, drainages, garbage must instead think of ways and means of making the existing KSCA Stadium foolproof safe, get police to park their vehicles at Police grounds, use Parade grounds for Public parking, build foot overbridges, use Cubbon Park only for traffic movement, activate all metro stations around KSCA, get autos and taxis to wait or stop a minimum of 100 metres away from metro stations and KSCA. That should take care of decongesting KSCA entry and exits on big match days. Don’t waste scarce resources on this new stadium fantasy. It is not the Karnataka government’s business to build a cricket stadium or maintain it. Use the funds to set up smart, useful sports infrastructure in the districts instead. Cricket can look after itself.

DISCLAIMER: 

The views expressed in the Article above are VEDAM JAISHANKAR   views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

Courtesy: VEDAM JAISHANKAR   and  Spade A Spade 2025