After forging a partnership with Spanish football club Atletico de Madrid two years ago, the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group is looking to build a first-of-its-kind sports complex near Kolkata to promote football at an investment of Rs.500 crore.
Goenka, the group’s chairman, said he will use his personal wealth to build a small stadium and a football academy along with a 120-room budget hotel to make the proposed complex self-sustainable in the future.
Goenka, the group’s chairman, said he will use his personal wealth to build a small stadium and a football academy along with a 120-room budget hotel to make the proposed complex self-sustainable in the future.
This would
be like a small sports city, he said, adding that a plot of land near
Kolkata measuring around 50 acres has been identified for the complex,
and approvals from the state government have been sought.
In the first phase, only the academy will be built, and it will take a year from receiving all clearances. Companies of the group will contribute to the project from their CSR (corporate social responsibility) budgets, Goenka said.
The group’s business interests include power generation and distribution (CESC Ltd), business process outsourcing (Firstsource Ltd), retail (Spencer’s Ltd) and carbon black (Philips Carbon Black Ltd), among others.
Goenka entered the business of sports in 2014, when in partnership with the Spanish club, he founded Atletico de Kolkata—an Indian Super League franchise which won the first edition of the annual football tournament. He has since taken interest in cricket as well, and now owns a franchise in the Indian Premier League, the Rising Pune Supergiants.
On Friday, Goenka said sports as a vertical is gaining importance within his group, and that going forward, he will increase his stake in Atletico de Kolkata. Besides the Spanish club, he has three partners, including former cricketer Sourav Ganguly. Goenka is the biggest stakeholder in Atletico de Kolkata, but the extent of his ownership isn’t publicly known.
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