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The BCCI had little option but to move the IPL 2026 final out of Bangalore as it had to consider the interests of the common fans. In addition to the complimentary passes for MLAs and MLCs, additional passes, complimentary or at concessional rates, were also demanded. This prompted the BCCI to shift the final on May 31 to Ahmedabad. The quota for complimentary tickets at a venue is 15 per cent of the total capacity, and the demand exceeded that limit. Chinnaswamy Stadium has a capacity of 35,000.
“See, as you all know, that is the convention and that is the norm (the venue for the final is the home city of the defending champions) that we have followed all these years, barring some incidents where it was not possible or feasible,” IPL chairman Arun Dhumal told RevSportz. “And given this convention only, we ensured that the opening game happened in Bangalore, despite the challenges they faced with the state government pertaining to last year’s stampede episode. We wanted to organise it in Bangalore only, but we checked with the state association as to how they would manage it. There is a new legislation that has come up in Karnataka, as you all know, under which I think three tickets are to be given to every legislator.
“And they had a few more commitments pertaining to their members and other dignitaries, wherein they had committed some tickets at concessional rates and stuff like that. Given that, we would have been in a tricky situation, as very few tickets would have been available to the fans.”
Once Chinnaswamy was ruled out, it became important to pick an alternate venue. One reason Ahmedabad was selected is because the city will host the ICC Board meeting later this month. The meeting had earlier been scheduled to take place in Qatar.
“Another issue was that there was this ICC Board meeting, which was to take place in Qatar,” said Dhumal. “But it could not take place because of the war at that point in time. So, since that ICC Board meeting is also to be conducted, most likely in Ahmedabad only, that is the reason we thought it appropriate. Since members would be coming in from all across the globe for the ICC meeting, we thought it appropriate to do it in Ahmedabad.”
(Full interview on RevSportz on Saturday)
The post At Chinnaswamy, very few tickets would have been available to fans: Arun Dhumal explains reason behind IPL final venue switch appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.
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