Bhubaneswar: September 04: State government of Odisha has started preparing its ground work to organize ‘ Men’s Hockey World League Final 2017’ and ‘World Cup 2018’. Today, a high level meeting was held at State Secretariat under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary of the state Aditya Prasad Padhi. Hockey India CEO Elena Norman also discussed the requirements for the event during the meeting.
After the meeting, Chief Secretary said, ‘2018 Hockey World Cup’ will be held at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar. We have to make bigger arrangements than we did for the Asian Athletics Meet as many more fans are expected to visit with their teams. Hockey practice ground in Kalinga Stadium will be converted into a second stadium for the World Cup matches while the empty areas will be converted to stands to hold more spectators’.
After discussing on different aspects of this grand event, Chief Secretary directed to do proper ground work for the success of these two mega sports’ event. Chief Secretary also asked to Sports and Tourism Department to do proper arrangement for the accommodation of the Players, Guests and spectators of different countries.
After the meeting, Sports secretary Vishal Dev said to Media, ‘Men’s Hockey World League Final 2017 will be held at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar from 1 to 10th of December’2017. In this league, top teams from India, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, England, Germany, Netherland, Spain and other countries will participate. In total around 22 matches will be played’.
Sports Secretary to Government of Odisha further said, ‘In between Nov to Dec of 2018, Hockey World Cup will be held here at Bhubaneswar. For which, government will add more spectators’ Gallery on North and Southern part of Kalinga Stadium to accommodate 20,000 people. In the current scenario, the capacity of the stadium is only for 9000 people. Around 16 teams will participate in this mega event. During this period, 20 to 25,000 spectators from different foreign countries will come to Bhubaneswar. Government will have an elaborate arrangement for the accommodation of such huge number of spectators. There will be a food court in the stadium, recreation zones in the city. Overhead cables will be removed and underground cabling will be done for entire city including Old Town area’.
Meanwhile, Hockey India CEO Norman said they are confident Odisha will prove to be a great host. “We have requested for more seating arrangements and accommodation. We are sure the State government will get ready for the event on time,” she said
