Reports | Delhi Dynamos to adopt Kalinga Stadium as new home venue from next year
AIFF
According to a TOI report, ISL franchise Delhi Dynamos are set to adopt Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar as their new home venue. The team is still mulling over the decision of playing all the matches in Bhubaneswar and might host a few of the matches at their previous home Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
After successfully hosting the Super Cup for two consecutive years, Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar will now get a chance to host few of the top Indian Super League games in the upcoming season. The Delhi team is now set to move their home venue from the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi to the stadium in Bhubaneswar.
With a capacity of 60,000 spectators, the venue in Delhi received very poor turn-out during the team’s home matches and according to the report, this is the major reason for the change in venue from the national capital to Bhubaneswar. The average spectator turn-out was only 9000 in the last edition of the league.
Kalinga Stadium has hosted only one ISL game in 2018 when Jamshedpur FC played its home match against Bengaluru FC in the month of February last year. The Delhi-based franchise was looking at venues in different states of the country including stadiums in Hyderabad and National Capital Region.
"In the five years of the ISL, stadium attendance in Delhi has never improved. Apart from sponsors, a main part of a club's revenue comes from the sale of tickets. Sadly that wasn't happening in Delhi and so the owners decided that it was time to move," a source told TOI.
The TOI report also added that Delhi might also play a few of its home matches at their previous home JLN Stadium in Delhi.
