Gujarat Lions may play three of their home matches in Lucknow

Gujarat Lions have requested BCCI to allow them to host them three of their home games in Uttar Pradesh. Two of those three were already going to be played there but they requested for a third one. Another request they made was to move the matches from Kanpur to Lucknow.

Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium is under some revamp work and there is some construction going on there. Rajkot stadium has a capacity of 26,000 while the stadium in Kanpur has 30,000 seating capacity available.

The franchise has asked BCCI to shift the matches to Lucknow as the capacity of the Lucknow stadium is 40,000. The Ekana Cricket Stadium can generate more revenue while these smaller venues have lesser capacity to generate the same. A source close to Time of India revealed about the same. The source said that the revenue in Lucknow is better than in Kanpur and is certainly better than Rajkot. “The Gujarat Lions have requested the board to make changes in the IPL schedule in order to play more home games in UP, as the revenue stream is better in Lucknow than in Rajkot. Even the capacity of the Lucknow stadium is bigger,” explained the source.

Lions are to play two of their home games in Kanpur. One against the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the other against Delhi Daredevils. It will be interesting to see if the BCCI allow shifting the venues as the Rajkot-based franchisee will push hard.

The stadium is yet to be ready for the roads around the stadium and some of the stands are yet to be readied. The source confirmed that if the stadium is ready then BCCI will shift the matches to Lucknow. The source told Times of India, “If the Ekana authorities are able to complete their construction work in time, the matches could be shifted to Lucknow.”