Ahmedabad: Once the preserve of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and Mumbai’s Wankhede, India’s biggest sporting spectacles – from the 2022 National Games to the 2023 Cricket World Cup final and now the 2025 World Chess Championship showdown between Gukesh and Ding Liren – are steadily shifting to one city: Ahmedabad.
The secret? The colossal Narendra Modi Stadium – the world’s largest cricket arena, with 132,000 seats – is backed by top-class training facilities, six-lane approach roads, metro connectivity and a proactive state government that offers seamless coordination and zero red tape.
“Organisers love Gujarat because decisions happen in hours, not months,” says a senior BCCI official.
While Delhi battles pollution, traffic chaos and bureaucratic delays, and Mumbai struggles with land scarcity and sky-high costs, Ahmedabad delivers ready infrastructure, floodlights that turn night into day, and hotel inventory that expanded massively post-2023 World Cup.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel personally promote Ahmedabad, providing global bodies with a welcoming atmosphere they rarely encounter elsewhere.
The upcoming 2036 Olympics bid has only sharpened Gujarat’s pitch: authorities have already earmarked 300+ acres for an Olympic-grade sports city on the city’s outskirts.
From MotoGP to chess, and kabaddi to kho-kho, Ahmedabad is no longer just a venue – it is India’s new sporting capital in the making.