Stadium Diaries: Narendra Modi Stadium (Motera Stadium), Ahmedabad

A Comprehensive Guide to Watching a Cricket Match in Ahmedabad

Introduction

The Narendra Modi Stadium, otherwise known as the Motera Stadium (henceforth referred to as the Motera in this review), located in Ahmedabad, is the largest stadium in the world, with a seating capacity of 132,000 spectators. It is managed by the Gujarat Cricket Association, and was renovated at a cost of 800 Crore INR. I have watched 5 games at the Motera (Day 1 of the India vs England D/N Test in 2021, Day 2 of the India vs England Day Test in 2021, Qualifier 2 of the IPL in 2023, Final of the IPL in 2023, Final of the World Cup in 2023), and will be summarizing my experience of the stadium in a few key points.

DISCLAIMER -

Rules and regulations (such as whether you’re allowed bags in VIP Stands, ticket box offices being open on match-days etc) are not always uniformly enforced, and readers are requested to do their own research before attending games. Additionally, facilities such as food and drink change depending on who is responsible for organising a particular game – WPL / IPL franchises tend to get involved in their respective domestic home games while a larger burden falls on the BCCI / DDCA during International games. I shall keep updating this piece as and when I get to know of any updates / changes made.

Seating

All seats at the Motera have an excellent view of the pitch. Seats that are higher up will have a steep viewing angle of the pitch, as well as being further away from the action that can break your immersion. It is recommended to book seats in the front (irrespective of whether they’re ground floor seating or first floor). As with any stadium in India, ground floor seating is fenced off from the ground for security purposes, which will hinder your view a bit if you have seats that are in the first few rows.

Seating Map of the Motera

I recommend the Block N, Bay 2 as it gives you a straight view of the pitch (Preferred due to lateral deviations off the pitch such as spin or seam movement being visible, such aspects of the game can’t be appreciated from side-on views) at affordable rates. Book tickets as close to the pitch as possible, as seats further back have a steep viewing angle (Making it hard to judge dip or bounce. Also not ideal for appreciating stroke play). For lower - level seating, Block D, Bay 5 - 1 and Block E, Bay 2 - 6 are recommended. One can also opt for the South Premium Stands on the opposite side of the ground, but they relatively much costlier to the above two options, and do not have any significant upgrade in viewing angles over Block D and Block E. However, the team dugouts during T20 games are located right ahead of the South Premium Stands, which can be something to consider while purchasing tickets.

Do note that all pre-match ceremonies, mid-innings shows, post-match presentations, etc., are always done facing the South Stand, as the Presidential Gallery and Presidential Suites where VIPs such as Jay Shah sit, are just above it.

Block N, Bay 2 during the IPL Qualifier 2

Block J during the 4th Test between India and England in 2021

Block Q during the 4th Test between India and England in 2021

Block K, Bay 2 during the IPL Final, 2023

Atmosphere

Ahmedabad lacks a historic stadium-going culture similar to the likes of Chennai or Mumbai. The high seating capacity means that even if 30,000 people (roughly the size of the Wankhede) show up, it would feel empty and quiet due to the sparse open-air seating. Undoubtedly, the decision to create a 132K seater in Ahmedabad is regrettable – very rarely will games fill up to that capacity, and when they don’t, it makes for both a bad spectator experience and an underwhelming television product.

Ahmedabad does not lack a cricket culture though, and over the months, attendance at the Motera has got better with time. Don’t expect day games (including Test matches) and neutral ODIs to get sold out, but IPL and India games at night almost always have a crowd nearing the ground’s maximum capacity. Home team support for Gujarat Titans is also quite significant. It does get decently loud when there’s a packed house, such as the IPL Final between CSK and GT in 2023. Chants encouraging players are a rare occurence, though, and the most you can expect is cheers for wickets and boundaries, and the crowd screaming “ooooooOOOOO” if the ball misses the bat’s edge and goes straight to the keeper.

Social media discourse over the Motera being as “quiet as a library” during the WC Final is slightly inaccurate – not only was the crowd loud but they were synchronized in their chants, whether it be the slow claps as Bumrah takes his run-up, chants for Rohit Sharma and Mohammad Shami, or the stadium being deafeningly loud after Shami took his only wicket that night. A lot of this could be attributed to the large number of people who travelled from other cities, primarily Mumbai, for the WC Final. It only started to get really quiet after the 35-over mark, when the game looked done and dusted, which is nothing unique to the city. The Wankhede was silent when Williamson and Mitchell were bashing India’s bowlers just 4 days ago in the Semi-Final, and the Chinnaswamy tends to go hush when the Royal Challengers are losing a Cricket game (which is a frequent occurrence). Moreover, it tends to be a pain to enter and exit the Motera, elaborated upon in a later section of this piece, so it is understandable that spectators tried to leave as early as possible.

Parallel to the above point, the usual crowd at the Motera tends to be quite bigoted in its worldview, unfortunately a general feature of Gujarati society. Last year, they heckled a Muslim teammate, Mohammad Shami, by chanting Hindu religious slogans to him while he was at the boundary, to arouse a reaction from him. The Pakistani team that played against India at this ground in the World Cup also faced those chants, alongside their national anthem being booed, abusive chants being hurled at players, and so on. Most people in the crowd for India vs Pakistan weren’t there for the cricket. They were there to have fun and “show Pakistanis their place”. This is not an exaggeration, this is verbatim from one of the spectators who was engaging in said behaviour on that day.

Infrastructure

Washrooms are quite spacious and clean.

Free drinking water facilities are provided. I have never found that water has run out at the Motera, though, I heard that it got over quite soon for India vs Pakistan.

There are several accessibility concerns with regards to the stadium. Upper floor seating is not recommended for the elderly or those with difficulties climbing. One can only access upper floor seating through a huge flight of stairs, and to my knowledge, it is not ramp-friendly, nor are there any elevators.

Vehicle entry is prohibited on the road that leads up to the stadium, so you have to walk for around 1-2 kms from the main road (where the BRTS stand is located) to reach the stadium. The distance from the metro is slightly shorter. It is still a cumbersome walk which may be inconvenient for those with mobility problems.

The Motera, a stadium with a capacity of 132,000 spectators, effectively has only two gates for entry (the third being reserved for premium seating). I cannot put into words how comically low this number is. The Chinnaswamy, a stadium with a capacity of roughly 33,000 seats, has 8 gates. The Feroz Shah Kotla with 35,000 seats has 15 gates. Just two gates for the Motera is an example of how poorly planned the stadium experience is. One of these gates has a narrow entrance that is surrounded by slums and shops, and the other opens through a residential society. Both gates act as a bottleneck during entry and exit. Getting in and out of the stadium is not a smooth experience, and is quite prone to stampedes. Do keep your children and loved ones close to you during the entry / exit process. It is quite regrettable that despite the hundreds of crores dumped into this stadium, something as fundamental as convenient entry / exit seems to have remained an afterthought.

Gate - 1 of the Motera

Food in the Stadium

Food at the Motera is quite expensive, and frankly speaking, very unhygenic at a packed house as well. I would recommend not having anything from the stadium as much as possible.

Connectivity

Reaching the Motera can be a hassle despite it being well-connected by BRTS and Metro. Do go as early as possible if you anticipate crowds to be high, as the low frequency and capacity of the Ahmedabad Metro means that coaches get pretty densely packed. Return journeys in the metro are equally packed, as most people disperse at the same time. Parking is usually available for those with their own vehicles, though, it is a bit far from the stadium, and you will have to walk a few more kilometres to reach it.

One of the more infuriating aspects of taking the metro on game-days is that they don’t allow you to use your metro card, for whatever reason. Paper tickets, which cost several times more than what a regular ticket would, are sold separately at metro station ticket counters, and they encourage you to buy a return ticket as well, as stations are likely to be packed during the return journey. This serves no practical purpose apart from increasing revenue, and it is honestly very rage-inducing to see my home city not using its already-limited transit infrastructure for public good, but for revenue generation. Moreover, the frequency of trains, which is usually 10 minutes, is not increased on match-days either, leading to stations getting crowded and crowds getting difficult to stand in, especially for women, children or the elderly.

This is a stark contrast to other cities in India. In Chennai, stadium authorities work with bureaucrats to make sure that metro travel is free for spectators holding a match ticket with them. In other cities, the frequency of the metro or MRT is often increased, so that huge crowds can be dispersed with quickly. It is not just that officials in Ahmedabad are incompetent, lazy, or indifferent to the spectator experience. But by actively increasing the ticket prices on match-days, knowing that you don’t have many alternatives to commute to and from the stadium, they try to fleece you, which is the most infuriating part of watching a game in Ahmedabad.

Primers before watching a cricket game in India

Do not take any valuable belongings inside with you. Headphones, chargers, powerbanks, books, pens, pencils, umbrellas, sunscreen, flagpoles and even coins from your wallet will be thrown out by security, with nothing more than dicey, makeshift locker systems in place before the gates to the stadium. This is one of the worst parts of watching a game in India. Generally, the premium stands are lax on these regulations, but if you want to watch a game from regular seating, you’ll have to endure some pain.

Physical tickets are mandatory. If you’re booking your tickets early enough online, they usually have an option for home delivery – select that, it’s worth paying the price for. If that option is not available, collect your tickets at the earliest. Most booking sites will ask you to collect your tickets before the match-day, claiming that the box office shall remain closed on the match-day to reduce crowds. This is just fear mongering. Most box offices across the country remain open on game-days. HOWEVER, it is not recommended to wait until the last minute to collect tickets, as you risk running into long queues and rowdy crowds.

IPL Qualifier 2 / Finals Ticket Collection Experience -

I had a terrible experience during ticket collection for the IPL Qualifier 2 in 2023 that I described on twitter a year ago, which I shall narrate again below. The average ticket collection experience isn’t this bad, but what happened to me is still a possibility, so I felt the need to describe it.

One day before Q2, the incompetence of the BCCI, IPL, Paytm and Gujarat Police lead to multiple stampedes at the Narendra Modi Stadium. I almost fainted amongst a raging crowd and had to leave without collecting my tickets.

Firstly, the venue. GT set up many centres across the city where one could print their tickets at their convenience. My dad went to a centre 2 minutes away from my sister's school, and had to stand in a queue of just 2 people before printing the ticket. For the playoffs, which are games with high attendance, exceeding over 2L, mind you, they opened only one centre, which was the Modi Stadium itself. How did they expect to manage such a crowd in one or two days? I don't think they did. Reflected in the way they handled it.

This is the entrance to the Modi Stadium. Picture it in your head, except, scorching hot 45°C Amdavad heat instead of a nighttime landscape. There is a big gate on the left and a small gate on the right, through which one can enter the stadium. There were queues for ticket counters inside the stadium, where one has to wait. Where's the problem? They did not have separate entrances for physical ticket sales and online ticket collections. So, a limited number of people were allowed inside, by opening either gate periodically, to prevent more people turning up for the physical ticket sales than expected.

There are two obvious problems with this arrangement. Firstly, there were numerous people outside who already had tickets, who were forced to wait outside without reason. Secondly, it is impossible to manage a crowd that is outside the stadium, because all police personnel are inside, leading to a lot of chaos and a situation that I'd describe as a stampede.

This was made worse by the way the crowd was managed. On the left was the big gate, and on the right was the small gate. Between 16:20 and 17:10 (approximate times), they only opened the small gate. One guard from inside signalled that the big gate wouldn't open, leading to a rush of people, who were at the big gate, running and pushing their way through to the small gate. 10 minutes later, they start opening the big gate. Finally, physical ticket sales closed, as they ran out of stock. They opened the gates one last time so everyone can enter inside. Of course, this wasn't communicated to people. And only the small gate was opened. So people rushed inside the stadium gates, thinking that there is a limited window to enter the stadium. Numerous punches to the gut, falling over on other people, people's hands getting stuck in the door, women feeling extremely uncomfortable in this scenario, bottles and caps and shoes getting lost was a common occurrence, with no way to exit.

We then reach the ticket window. I finally took a breath of fresh air. There was a huge queue, and I lamented my fate, but accepted it. At least the queue will run in an orderly fashion, with police and security personnel there to coordinate with us. Right? WRONG! The queues ran smoothly for around halfway through. Then, people started pushing us from behind. By the time I was around a metre from the counter, half an hour had passed. I thought to myself, five minutes more? Right? WRONG! I was squashed between the crowds. I found myself tossed around from left to right to up to down amongst the crowd. There was no order at all. The pushes only grew stronger. Earlier, they were a bearable obstruction. Now, they were the default for advancing forward. The exhaustion, suffocation and tiredness got to me. I realized that I couldn't make the last leg of the journey. Even if I made it through, I'd eventually get stuck with no way to exit. The crowd was so large and mismanaged that people exited the same way they came. The same, crowded passage, which was more of a rumble than a queue. So, I left.

But wait? Wasn't there police inside? Didn't they do anything? Nope. There was one policeman standing near the queue. We begged him for three quarters of an hour to do something and solve the queue. He did absolutely nothing. Others were chilling outside and on the stairs. I was horribly disappointed by the arrangements, or lack of, thereof, made by the Gujarat Police and PayTM Insider. You knew that tens of thousands of people were going to come that day. PayTM could've arranged their own security. They didn't. And for this, for almost fainting amongst a crowd of thousands, I was supposed to pay PayTM Insider a convenience fee? What convenience? I was lost for breath and couldn’t breathe normally for over 2 hours after I exited the stampede.

Of course, that raises the question, why not exit earlier, and come back for tickets the next day. The reason for that is, this pathetic excuse of a ticketing service had emailed everyone saying that "ticket collection will not happen on the match day. Collect your tickets at the earliest." They mailed this to me four times that day as a reminder, which was why I was hesitant to leave. Then, when I was halfway through the line, with no way to exit, getting pushed around from all four corners, an announcement is made on the loud speaker: "Ticket collection will happen tomorrow at the 4D Mall near the Stadium". Excellent clarity of thought.

Usually tickets are home delivered. The incompetence of the board meant that this couldn't happen, because ticket sales started very late. Which is what caused all these issues. But the greater question is, why do I need physical tickets at all? They just scan the barcode in a physical ticket. Scan the QR code on my phone? Horribly backward system.

Nearby Food Places

The lane opposite Vishwakarma College has a bunch of restaurants, such as pizza, Gujarati and Punjabi eateries, Subway and other fast food brands, Dosa places, and so on. A lot of eateries in Ahmedabad stay open till 12-2 am, such as late night chai addas which also serve snacks and fast food, so you have other options as well, scattered across the city.

A two-line review of the Motera

A horribly planned white elephant that very rarely fills up, with underwhelming infrastructure given the costs involved, run by a comical management. Watching the game from the stadium itself is quite enjoyable though, and there are good vantage points all around.

Certain criticisms in this review may seem a bit too harsh, but you expect better from a stadium that is proudly showcased as the crown jewel of the BCCI.