SINCE THE stampede at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in June, India’s sports infrastructure has been under the scanner. In a country where cricket is synonymous to religion, such a tragic incident of mismanagement is not just a case of logistical insufficiency but an ode to a systemic failure of foresight. This incident lifts the veil on the risks of operating 21st-century events with 20th-century infrastructure.
In July, earlier this year, acting on the findings of the Justice (Retd) Michael D’Cunha commission report, the Karnataka government decided to initiate legal action against officers of Karnataka Police, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, DNA Entertainment Networks and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (‘KSCA’). The stadium has now been declared unsuitable for hosting large-scale events unless serious reforms are implemented.
This calls for more than just a temporary fix. It demands a paradigm shift from reactive crowd control to proactive, tech-driven infrastructure management. It is time India must acknowledge its infrastructural shortcomings and invest in Smart Stadiums. These stadiums would be technology-enabled, data-driven infrastructural ecosystems that prioritise crowd management, fan experience, and public safety.
Smart stadiums are digitally integrated ecosystems that use Internet of Things (‘IoT’), artificial intelligence (‘AI’) and data analytics to enhance fan experience and ensure safety. Such a transformation must be human rights compliant and privacy based, underpinned by secure digital infrastructure and aligned with India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (‘DPDPA’), 2023.
The declaration of Chinnaswamy Stadium as unsuitable for large-scale events is not just a punitive measure, but a wake-up call. India’s stadiums, many of which were constructed decades ago, lack the infrastructural scalability to handle today’s crowds. Most stadiums in India were built in an era when crowd expectations, technologies, and safety protocols were rudimentary. With changing times and a continued steep rise in fans, millions demand real-time updates, and seamless access to their favorite teams, players, their franchises, etc. Despite the fan passion that demands instant updates, the system continues to be reliant on inefficient ticketing processes, limited CCTV and crowd heat-mapping tools in and around stadium areas and even rare usage of AI for real-time crowd analytics or risk detection. What we need is to implement a Smart Stadium Model that prioritises ‘Safety by Design’.
Globally, stadiums like Santiago Bernabeu in Spain and Levi’s Stadium in the USA have implemented intelligent systems that include:
AI to monitor real-time crowd flow and identify congestion before it turns dangerous.
IoT sensors that track entry/exit patterns, seat occupancy, and environmental conditions.
Mobile apps that provide location-based services across entry gates, parking, food or emergency exits.
Integrate public services like ambulances, fire control and police with central command centers.
Predictive analytics that power proactive security and medical response.
Digital ticketing and facial recognition that streamline access control.
Such models not only improve efficiency, they save lives. It thus becomes incumbent to adapt these models, especially in high-density urban centers where public order is tightly interlinked with infrastructure readiness.
But smart must also mean secure and rights-based
While smart stadiums offer efficiency and safety, they also require massive data collection from CCTV footage to biometric scans, mobile app data, and even health-related information in certain contexts. This is where India’s DPDPA must be put to test and become central to the stadium-tech architecture that advocates:
Consent-based data processing must be ensured for ticketing apps, surveillance tools and AI analytics.
Collection and purpose limitation principles must be rigorously applied which means that any data collected for safety cannot be repurposed for marketing or surveillance usage.
Storage limitation and data minimization must be built into IT protocols, ensuring no prolonged retention or unnecessary profiling.
Public notice boards, privacy disclaimers, and grievance redressal mechanisms should be visible and accessible at all digital touchpoints in the stadium.
The first step toward this transformation is the development of secure IT infrastructure that is not just efficient but also capable of protecting sensitive personal data while fulfilling public safety mandates. A suggestion in this regard can be the implementation of blockchain technology to store datasets and the adoption of open standards in AI and digital infrastructure. By adopting open standards, smart stadiums will not just be innovative but also transparent making it easier to audit how decisions regarding crowd monitoring are made, thus laying the foundation for building trust and accountability, and help address concerns related to bias, privacy and security in AI driven environments.
India’s way forward
India is on the cusp of becoming a global sports hub, with increasing interest in hosting international tournaments. But global prestige requires global standards be it in athletic performance, or in spectator rights, digital ethics, and technological readiness.
Initiatives like the Smart Cities Mission and Digital India offer a scaffold to build upon. A public private partnership model, involving tech companies, civic bodies, and sports federations, could pave the way. Moreover, the Khelo Bharat Niti 2025 must explicitly include smart infrastructure standards, including minimum requirements for crowd surveillance, AI-based risk assessment, and mobile-enabled ticketing. Inspiration can be taken from the Olympic AI Agenda which highlights the importance of AI in transforming the Games experience for athletes and fans by in-stadium augmented reality features and AI based venue navigation.
The authors propose a ‘National Sports Infrastructure Mission’ in convergence with Smart Cities initiatives, DPDPA that would offer a unique policy window for holistic development of the sports ecosystem in India. By embedding rights-based technology governance into sports infrastructure planning, India can become a global leader in ethical smart stadium design. The Chinnaswamy Stadium stampede was not just a one-off incident. It was symptomatic of deeper infrastructural neglect and the absence of preventive technologies. The future of sports should not just be about star athletes and big matches. It should be about the safety and experience of the spectators. The path forward must be intelligent, integrated, and inclusive. Smart stadiums are not just about technology, they are about creating environments where efficiency meets accountability, and where public excitement does not come at the cost of public safety or privacy.
In a digital democracy, even sports infrastructure must reflect constitutional values. Because every ticket-holder isn’t just a fan, they are a rights-holder.