A stadium that really stands out for its huge size is the Salt Lake Stadium in Calcutta, India. It has a total capacity for 120,000 people, meaning that all the habitants of Cadiz (Spain) could fit on this stadium, which is used for football matches and athletic events.
The Salt Lake Stadium is currently the home stadium for the National Indian team, though it has also been home stadium for clubs like East Bengal FC, Mohun Bagan AC, Prayag United SC and Pailan Arrows. It was built in 1984 and has the dimensions of 105 m long and 68 m width. Until 2011 there were made many constant renovations and therefore the FIFA Organization distrusted this enormous stadium as a field to play official games.
Thanks to these improvements, which included some extra seats, big screens to watch the game and artificial turf, the stadium finally met the minimum FIFA requirements.
Nonetheless, India’s football doesn’t play a prominent international role. Additionally, the stadium, even having said that has gone through many reworks, is not as modern and well-equipped as some other top tier sport facilities. For example, it still doesn’t have separated stands, which makes some
sections a bit over-crowded sometimes. Consequently, the Organization was never convinced and didn’t let them host any big international event.
But all of this is expected to change in 2017 since FIFA has decided to organize here the FIFA U-17 World Cup. Due to the extra adaptations that have to be carried out, the stadium will lose a 29% of its capacity. Consequently, it’s no longer going to be one of the largest stadiums in the world because its capacity will drop to 80,000. In this renewal, all seats will be replaced to make them more comfortable so the audience can enjoy at the fullest any game or show they attend.
One of the major events that occurred in this stage was the farewell to the German goalkeeper Oliver Khan in 2008, in a friendly match between Bayern Munich and Mohun Bagan. It has also hosted many international competitions and concerts.
