Men’s Hockey World Cup | Kalinga Stadium can become one of the top five stadiums in world, says FIH president

The meeting of the governing body for the Hockey Men's World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018 was held at the State Secretariat in Bhubaneswar. Chaired by Chandra Sarathi Behra, Minister, Sports & YS Dept, Govt. of Odisha, the meeting was briefed by Vishal Kumar Dev, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Sports and Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha. The Secretary informed the members on the arrangements for the World Cup, in detail.

Some important discussions that emerged from the meeting were about the execution of the opening ceremony, matches and also about the city festival.

Hockey India has made all efforts for a grand opening ceremony on November 27 at Kalinga Athletics Stadium. The seating capacity in the Kalinga Athletics stadium for the opening ceremony is less than 10,000 due to the stage related arrangements. Tickets for the public will be available online at www.ticketgenie.in. No physical sale of the tickets will be done at the outlets and the organisers will ensure that the public will be notified with sufficient time before the sale starts. Further, there will be NO Pass system and all have to purchase the tickets from the official ticket operator.

FIH has obligations with respect to sponsors, teams, officials, delegates, etc and therefore, in view of the public demand for the opening ceremony, Hockey India has extended the World Cup celebrations to Barabati Stadium, Cuttack on November 28. The Music Maestro A R Rahman will be performing both on the opening ceremony day, 27th at Kalinga Athletics Stadium, Bhubaneswar, and also on 28th at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack. Some prominent Bollywood celebrities may also attend the celebrations in Cuttack.

Bhubaneswar will also witness a city festival during the course of the Hockey Men's World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018. Dance and Music Festival, Art Trail, Storytelling festival, Food festival and other such entertaining activities will be available for people to indulge in was also discussed at length during the meeting.

Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi directed that all the arrangements should be smooth. The Traffic, public transport and parking related arrangements were also discussed.

Chandra Sarathi Behera, Minister, Sports & YS Dept., Govt. of Odisha, expressed his satisfaction over the arrangements and hoped that the World Cup will be a memorable one for everyone.

The Governing Body meeting was also attended by R Balakrishnan, IAS, Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Odisha, Rajendra Prasad Sharma, IPS D.G. & I.G. OF POLICE, ODISHA, Tuhin Kanth Pandey, ACS Finance, Ms Elena Norman, CEO Hockey India, Satyajit Mohanty, Commissioner of Police and other senior officials.