SAI planning to put its ‘white elephants’ to commercial use

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 1

The government spent millions of rupees to construct sprawling stadiums in the Capital to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010. A little over four years after the event, these showpiece stadiums have, however, turned into white elephants, gobbling up massive amounts just for their upkeep.
The stadiums — Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Major Dhyan Chand Stadium, Karni Singh shooting range, Syama Prasad Mookerjee swimming complex and Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium   —were either built or refurbished at a combined cost of Rs 2,179 crore. But the under-utilisation of these venues has made it difficult for the Sports Authority of India, which owns these stadia in the Capital, to justify their enormous maintenance costs.
The SAI, for some time now, has been considering how to use the infrastructure to generate some revenue that could be used for their maintenance. It needs Rs 70 crore per year to maintain these stadiums, but gets only Rs 39 crore for the purpose from the government. Raising money has become a nightmare for the SAI. Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) was one model that the SAI had introduced after the CWG, but even that didn’t work out.
With the mounting maintenance bills, the sports body is thinking of using the stadiums commercially as it’s done in the West.  In Europe, the stadiums are rented out for commercial activities like hosting a concert to generate revenue that is used for maintenance.
The most-used stadium in the world — the Amsterdam Arena — is used for 100-120 days a year for both sporting and non-sporting activity. With not many sports events happening in these massive stadiums, the SAI has started working on a proposal to rent out vacant spaces at these stadia to National Sports Federations (NSFs), apparel and footwear companies such as Reebok, Nike and Adidas, and coffee shops.
“We would again invite the NSFs to open their offices in the five stadia. They used to operate from the JLN stadium before the CWG, but had to move out when construction and renovation started. The move will help them function under one roof. We would put out a circular inviting the sports footwear and apparel brands to open their outlets inside the stadium complex. We want to develop these stadia into a commercial hub. Staging cultural shows is another option,” a senior SAI official told The Tribune.
The official said that the corporate houses have often shown interest in conducting in-house sporting activities at these venues. “They are ready to shell out big bucks but we have to see that they take proper care of the facility.”
In July this year, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had written to the SAI to come up with concrete solutions to save the stadia from becoming white elephants. The PMO was reportedly unhappy with the use and maintenance of the stadia built and renovated for the Commonwealth Games.