The Kalinga Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Odisha, India. Situated in the heart of Bhubaneswar near Nayapalli area, the stadium offers facilities for football, field hockey, basketball, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, wall climbing and swimming. Other features of the stadium includes an 8-lane synthetic athletics track, a sports hostel, gymnasium and India's first newly built Olympic standard pink and blue hockey turf.
History
Although its foundation stone was laid as early as 1978 by Biju Patnaik, it was only in 2010 that the Kalinga Stadium was established. With the 14th edition of Men’s Hockey World Cup 2018 coming up in Bhubaneswar, the capital is all geared up for the prestigious hockey tournament.
With an aim to provide best of the sports infrastructures, the Odisha state government remodelled Kalinga stadium into an international sports complex providing facilities for all kinds of sports and games. Both practice and main pitches have been re-laid with new blue turf as per the FIH specification. The stadium capacity has also been increased from 7500 to 15000 adding two new galleries in the north and south ends of the stadium for the spectators. CM Naveen Patnaik on October 10 inaugurated the new and improved Kalinga Stadium, which over the past few months has received world class upgrades, making it one of the premier destinations for sporting events in the world.
Major Matches
The Kalinga Stadium organised its first major international tournament in 2014 when it played host to the elite hockey event, the Champions Trophy. Three years later, it hosted best eight teams of the world as a venue to the Odisha Hockey World League Final. Located in congenial and healthy environs of a huge sports complex, the Stadium also hosted national events like Indian Super League, Super Cup and the Hockey India League.
Although used mainly for hockey and football, it has also had its fair share of athletic events. It hosted the 2017 Asian Athletics Championship.
