23 Sardar Patel Stadium

For designing a fan-focused cricket ground

Imperialism, world wars and economic depression: Through it all, cricket has not just survived, but thrived. Once the world emerges from COVID-19 and large-scale gatherings resume, fans of the sport will have a new go-to spot in India.

The US$100 million Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, India is now the largest cricket ground in the world, with seating for 110,000 people. Designed by Populous and built by Larsen & Toubro over three years, the state-of-the-art venue opened in February on the same 63-acre (25.5-hectare) site as its predecessor. The reimagined stadium more than doubles the capacity of the old venue (demolished in 2015) and holds 10,000 more fans than the previous record holder in Melbourne, Australia.

On top of its unprecedented capacity, Sardar Patel Stadium features 76 corporate boxes, four team dressing rooms and facilities, a VIP pavilion, three practice fields, a 55-room clubhouse with an Olympic-size swimming pool, and parking space for 3,000 cars and 10,000 two-wheelers. Home to the Gujarat Cricket Association, it also includes a community indoor cricket academy underneath the stadium with a dormitory for up to 40 athletes and six indoor practice pitches.

Fan’s Perspective

The Populous team set out to create a sense of community without sacrificing the individual experience, using a bowl-shaped design to give each spectator an unobstructed, 360-degree view of the action. “You feel you’re a part of what’s happening,” Andrew James, lead architect and senior principal, said at the inauguration in February. 

Drawing on its experience with other sports venue projects, Populous created two distinct seating tiers, each with 50,000 general admission seats. The feature allows for smaller events to fill lower levels and still generate the noise and atmosphere of bigger events.

Unrattled Innovation

Ahmedabad, in the western state of Gujarat, is prone to earthquakes. So engineering firm Walter P Moore designed Sardar Patel’s roof to be lightweight and flexible. The fabric roof system is seismically separate from the concrete seating bowl and held up by steel columns. These V- shaped columns resist gravity and lateral loads resulting from high winds and earthquakes.

No Bottlenecks

To steer clear of India’s notorious congestion, vehicles are limited to the stadium’s ground level while all pedestrian movement takes place a level above.