There is one Nehru Stadium near Swar gate, Pune. It used to be Cricket Stadium but now Maharashtra Cricket Association hold matches in their new MCA (formerly Sahara Stadium). Pune FC should atleast lease this ground and hold 1-2 games to see whether they get good crowd. Swar gate is middle of the city.
The problem in Balewadi Stadium is Public Transportation as it is on Highway. Pune FC should have vision of providing free bus service to points in City Center for ticket holders.
@Arsenalfan, some points on making academy and community connect, and you have the manual for starting a club in India. You touched all the bases except these two. Excellent read.
Hardest part though is not getting a Bollywood star, in fact, that is the easiest: they have Abhisek Bachchan in the board of the club, through him the whole family may be got.
Most difficult (and ambitious also) is building the stadium. They can sell the name of the stadium to a corporate: you know, the Pan Parag Arena/ Horlicks Super Bowl/ or the like.
8000 capacity stadium in the middle of the city is perfect, but I think the biggest failure of PFC is not being able to rope the young crowd: see, Pune is a greater centre of education than Bengaluru, hence more young crowd (though socially Bengaluru is more liberal I think). But the way BFC manipulated this segment is exemplary to PFC. In fact Pune lost the plot there.
The idea of hosting pre-season matches with international clubs is also exiting: I would also prefer them to organize annual tournament for the juniors as well like Weifang Cup.
Comments
The problem in Balewadi Stadium is Public Transportation as it is on Highway. Pune FC should have vision of providing free bus service to points in City Center for ticket holders.
1. Metro project in the centre of pune?? Kidding me right
India doesnt work that way regarding developing projects.... The works are outsourced but what goes behind the scenes would effectively rule them out
Hardest part though is not getting a Bollywood star, in fact, that is the easiest: they have Abhisek Bachchan in the board of the club, through him the whole family may be got.
Most difficult (and ambitious also) is building the stadium. They can sell the name of the stadium to a corporate: you know, the Pan Parag Arena/ Horlicks Super Bowl/ or the like.
8000 capacity stadium in the middle of the city is perfect, but I think the biggest failure of PFC is not being able to rope the young crowd: see, Pune is a greater centre of education than Bengaluru, hence more young crowd (though socially Bengaluru is more liberal I think). But the way BFC manipulated this segment is exemplary to PFC. In fact Pune lost the plot there.
The idea of hosting pre-season matches with international clubs is also exiting: I would also prefer them to organize annual tournament for the juniors as well like Weifang Cup.