Mangaluru: It’s not been a month since the 19th Federation Cup-National Senior Athletics Championships 2015 got over, the renovated Warm-Up track set up adjacent to Mangala Stadium has already been misused for other uses other than sports. A “Living Style Exhibition- Gruhashobe” is going on in a temporary tent set up very close to the running tracks. You can even see lots of digging being done. Even though the location of the exhibition doesn’t harm the tracks, but I saw people attending the exhibition walking on the tracks and so on. How nice!
Pretty soon this Warm-Up ground for the athletes will be just like Nehru Maidan, which was suppose to be used only for sporting events, has been constantly used for political events, musical shows, religious events etc. When the administration had spent nearly Rs 20 lakhs on this Warm-Up ground during the Federation Championships, why can’t they take care of it and see that no one uses the ground other than the athletes. The entrance gate to the ground is wide open, with no security guard to prevent trespassers.
All I want to say is that the authorities should refrain from letting out the indoor stadium for purposes other than sports. They should not lease or rent out the ground for commercial purpose such as hosting exhibitions, circus, or any other cultural events. And if they start renting this ground for various other non-sporting events then there will be no time or space left to the athletes to carry out training. This affects their performance and the very purpose of having this brand new warm-up ground is defeated.
The government and the local sports administration must promote sports and save this warm-up ground exclusively for the use of athletes. But now it seems like, “You give stadiums/sporting grounds for exhibitions, which is more important to you than sports. You have seen how dismal our performances are in sports.” Think twice, and stop renting out sport ground for other uses than sports. Period.