Bhubaneswar, May 10: The hockey stadium at Kalinga Sports Complex, which has emerged as a favourite destination for international matches, will be the venue for Men's Hockey World League final this year and Men's World Cup next year.
The stadium had also hosted the prestigious Champions Trophy in December 2014.
The synthetic turf stadium, built at an estimated cost of Rs 19.94 crore with a seating capacity of 8,000, was inaugurated in July 2013.
Since its inauguration, the stadium has been the venue for the state-based franchise Kalinga Lancers for four seasons.
The Men's Hockey World League final featuring eight of world's best teams, including the host India, will be played from December 1 to 10, while the Men's World Cup, in which 16 teams will take part, is scheduled to be played between November 28 and December 16 next year.
Former Indian captain and Rajya Sabha member Dilip Tirkey said that Bhubaneswar would be one of the major destinations for international hockey matches because of the popularity of stadium.
"The journey so far has been satisfactory and the response of crowd has been equally heartening. The match between India and Pakistan in the Champions Trophy created lot of buzz in the city. The tickets for the match were sold out much before time. The upcoming two international tournaments at the stadium will also attract huge crowd," Tirkey said.
The facilities of the stadium include automatic sprinkler system for watering the ground, player's lounge, medical room, dope room and floodlights.
Besides, there is another practice turf near the main stadium, which is required for international tournaments.
Though the existing infrastructure is sufficient to conduct international tournaments, but the stadium needs additional stands for more spectators.
"An additional stand with seating capacity of 5000 will be built in the main stadium before the world cup. Besides there will be changing rooms and other rooms at the practice turf for players and match officials," said a sports department official.
