Mishap at mass dance event may dampen GCDA’s bid to woo non-sporting events to stadium

GCDA's decision to rent out Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium for a mass dance event may jeopardize its future as a sports venue.

The Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) may not have done any favour to the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium at Kaloor, which it owns, by renting it out to the mass dance event where an accident left Uma Thomas, MLA, seriously injured, thus damaging its prospects as the venue for future international sporting events, it is being said.

It is unlikely to go down well with FIFA, the governing body of international football, and may even cost the city international matches. In fact, just over three months ago, Asian Football Confederation general secretary Datuk Seri Windsor John had observed that the “Kochi stadium is a recipe for disaster” after having a close look at the ground during the Indian Super League (ISL) opener.

Serious concerns have also been raised about the impact of the mass dance event with 12,000 dancers on the playing turf, which was renovated at a cost of around ₹80 lakh ahead of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup hosted in part by the stadium in 2017. However, the GCDA claimed that the ground is big enough leaving adequate space for staging the event without affecting the ‘field of play.’ “We had seen to it that the turf was not damaged by keeping the participants out of the field of play,” said GCDA sources.

“There are delicate pipes beneath the turf to ensure that water drains out within eight minutes. The impact of so many people on such a turf is imaginable. In fact, when the stadium hosted the inauguration of an ISL season, not more than 150 were allowed on the turf,” said sources critical of the move.

The impact on the turf would be known when ISL team Kerala Blasters FC, which has the stadium as its home, inspects it ahead of its next home game on January 13.

The GCDA had in its last year’s budget allocated ₹8 crore towards “turf protection tiles” to woo non-sporting events to the stadium. But work on the project may only begin depending on inquires for staging such events in the stadium. The tragic turn of events during the mass dance programme may have done little to help that cause.

The GCDA on its part pointed out that most international stadiums play host to non-sporting events like receptions to visiting State heads. “A city like Kochi needs such events as it adds to the local economy. Even in the case of this event, the convergence of over 12,000 dancers and their parents would have helped the city,” GCDA sources said.