Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede puts focus on proposals to move cricket stadium to new location on outskirts of Bengaluru

Indian Express

13 hours ago

The stampede at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on June 4 during the celebration of the first-ever IPL victory for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) cricket team has once again raised questions over the location of the cricket stadium in the heart of the city.
In arguments in the Karnataka High Court in a suo motu case taken up by the court over the stampede deaths, the state advocate general informed that the cause of the stampede was the nearly 2.5 lakh fans trying to access the stadium, which can accommodate 33,000 fans.
'The event (at the stadium) was organised on behalf of RCB by DNA Event Management. KSCA (Karnataka State Cricket Association) is in charge of the stadium. All the security is provided by them in the stadium. All the deaths happened at the entry gates of the stadium. The problem is that 33,000 people were expected – which is the capacity of the stadium – but 2.5 lakh people turned out,' Advocate General K M Shashikiran Shetty told the Karnataka HC last week.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was asked on June 8 by the media in Mysuru – in the wake of the Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede – whether the government has plans to move the cricket stadium to the outskirts of the city.
The chief minister, who is an avid cricket enthusiast and often watches matches at the stadium, responded that 'the government will look into this matter'.
According to a senior state official, 'The long-term solution to prevent incidents like the stampede is the relocation of the cricket stadium to a higher capacity facility somewhere on the outskirts of the city.'
The president of the association of walkers at Cubbon Park, which is located opposite the Chinnaswamy Stadium, has also called for reclaiming the stadium by the Indian Army on account of the land originally belonging to the Karnataka sub-area of the army.
'It is also brought to your kind notice that the onus is also on the Karnataka Sub Area as the stadium land and wireless office situated (nearby) belongs to the army. There is no document to show transfer of the land by the Army to the state government or to KSCA by the Army,' S Umesh, president of the walkers' association, stated in a June 8 letter to the police.
The KSCA, in fact, acquired 33 acres of land at Alur, off the Tumkur Road, around 25 km from the heart of Bengaluru, to develop new facilities in the early 2000s, but the now fully developed grounds are only used by academies like the RCB-KSCA academy and for tier 2 international matches. The facility does not have stands for fans to watch games.
The KSCA facility at Alur near the Golden Palms resort is known as the Three Ovals KSCA Stadium on account of the presence of three cricket fields known as the Platinum Oval, Golden Oval, and Silver Oval. The facility has 22 practice pitches and indoor facilities. It hosted its first-ever match in 2011, and the RCB-KSCA academy moved to the location subsequently.
During the tenure of former India captain Anil Kumble as the KSCA president in 2013, a Platinum Jubilee Pavilion linking the Golden Oval and the Silver Oval pavilions was inaugurated.
At the time, the KSCA management had indicated that the KSCA stadium in the heart of Bengaluru would continue to be used for full-fledged international matches while the Alur stadium would be used for domestic and other tier 2 international matches. An India A vs South Africa A team match was played at the Alur KSCA ground in 2018.
'The ground at Alur is also now virtually within the city of Bengaluru. There is now a proposal for the KSCA to build a full-fledged stadium near Tumkur (around 60 km from the city),' a government official said after the June 4 stampede incident at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.