Regular cricket fans face tight squeeze in renovated
Chinnaswamy Stadium

By Arkodeepto Mukherjee

BANGALORE (Feb. 7)—While increasing the seating capacity of Chinnaswamy Stadium from 55,000 to 70,000, the Karnataka State Cricket Association has compromised on the comfort level of spectators, as the new seats are very small and tightly packed together.

The main reason behind the congested state of the gallery is that KSCA is making new, luxurious corporate boxes, with the result that regular seats in the stadium will be pushed closer together.

KSCA gave the contract to Ferco Seating Systems. The project in-charge, who would not give his name, said the work would be done within one month, long before the Indian Premier League starts in April.

“By giving them (celebrities who come to watch the IPL matches) more luxury, KSCA is doing injustice to the common cricket lovers” said Pratap, a 16-year-old cricket fan from Bangalore who attends the Brijesh Patel Cricket Academy.

When a SoftCopy reporter asked the chief general manager of KSCA about the expenditure for the project, he refused to speak about it.

“This will give the cricket lovers of the city more chances to come to the ground and watch the IPL and it will also help KSCA to earn some revenue to maintain the stadium” Col. K. Ramachandran said.

But Mouli, an official of KSCA, said that like all other state cricket boards, KSCA also gets money from BCCI (The Board of Control for Cricket in India), and with that they are developing and increasing the seating capacity.

“KSCA should not forget that safety of spectators. As they are increasing the seat numbers, they also should provide other facilities like water, toilets properly,” said Appanna Ganapathy, a former sports journalist of Indian Express.

“It is a great opportunity for people like us to go and watch matches in the stadium, and I hope KSCA will keep the price of the tickets within reach of the common people as they are increasing the seats [and may increase the price of each ticket if the seats are not filled],” said Virat, a budding cricketer in the city in his early teens who attends the Karnataka Institute of Cricket.

Most of the extra seats will be installed in the N stand and H stands, which are for associated clubs of KSCA, and the P1, P3 and P4 stands (left to the player’s enclosure).

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