ISL 2017: Delhi Dynamos to shift home games to out of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium?

What’s the story?

Delhi Dynamos, who slumped to a 2-0 defeat against NorthEast United in what was their first home game of ISL 2017, might move on from their home ground, the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

There have been talks from the fans’ side to make Dr. Ambedkar Stadium their new fortress, as this season has seen one of the lowest attendance that Delhi has ever had.

In case you didn’t know…

The match between Delhi Dynamos against NorthEast United was a highly contested affair, which saw the team from Guwahati emerge victorious. However, one of the most interesting aspects of the match was that Northeast United fans outnumbered Delhi fans, even though the game took place in Delhi’s home stadium.

The heart of the matter…

Rohan Sharma, the Director of Delhi Dynamos, was asked by a fan on Twitter if they had any intentions of changing their home stadium, mainly due to the fact that the stadium has not seen full attendance in a long time. Fans have been asking for a smaller stadium since the conclusion of 2015 season, as it would be easier to fill up the stadium and cheer for their favorite team.

@MrRohanSharma why aren't we moving to another stadium? Jln has the best pitch but 60k is way too much for us to fill yesterday you would've seen, 11.5k attendance is the lowest Delhi has ever had in last 3 seasons it's mainly because of 2 reasons (1)

— Deepesh Salhotra (@deepeshsalhotra) December 3, 2017

1) because it's exam time 2) because most of our fanbase consists of students. Why not renovate ambedkar? It will take a lot of time and money but we aren't able to create an atmosphere in jln a stadium with 25k capacity is best for us (2)

— Deepesh Salhotra (@deepeshsalhotra) December 3, 2017

I'm not asking for an Immediate move but we aren't seeing any progress with that i know you'd rather have our own stadium but the fact is that we can't grow in a stadium where players can't listen to what we're saying and a place which we can't fill even 50%

— Deepesh Salhotra (@deepeshsalhotra) December 3, 2017

Why aren't we trying to move there by the end of the season or by next season? Are we looking for alternatives? Because we want to create an atmosphere where we can motivate our players with our chants. *end*

— Deepesh Salhotra (@deepeshsalhotra) December 3, 2017

The fan suggested moving the home ground to the Ambedkar Stadium, to which Sharma said that although this is a move that could happen, it may take a lot of time, as there could be a lot of "politics" involved in the process. He also said that the club has been in talks with officials at the Ambedkar Stadium.

So here is the thing this isn't as simple as us going saying we want to move to Ambedkar and Ambedkar says "ok" a lot of politics are involved. In any case we have spoken to some top government officials to fix this problem. Don't worry https://t.co/6ym5SQTMPY

— Rohan Sharma (@MrRohanSharma) December 3, 2017

What’s next?

The Dynamos play their next home game against newcomers Jamshedpur on December 6, and hopefully, the team can emerge victorious in the match and give their home supporters something to cheer about.

Author’s take

The management should listen to what the fans want and move to a small stadium, as it will be easier for the fans to fill up the galleries and motivate their team to give their best on the field. A stadium with a capacity of 55-60 thousand is very difficult to fill, and the Dynamos would obviously not want to perform in front of a near-empty stadium.