Pullela Gopichand to set up an International Badminton Academy in Greater Noida
The current national coach, Badminton & Dronacharya award winner Pullela Gopichand is setting up a world class Badminton Academy at Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida. The Agreement for the same has been signed in New Delhi today. This will be first such academy by Gopichand in North India. This academy is going to be housed in the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex, a world class intergraded sports complex created by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority, with an investment of over INR 130 crores towards the development of the sports complex.
The complex is set up in approximately 40 acres and it has a world class Cricket stadium which is also the home ground for the Afghanistan National Cricket Team, a football ground & a 400m athletics track, an Olympic size swimming pool, synthetic tennis courts, a skating rink, volleyball and basketball courts and a state of the art multipurpose indoor sports stadium.
The Gopichand academy, managed by Sportzlive a leading Sports Management/ marketing company, intends to become a centre of excellence to nurture the talent of the region as well as broadbase the interest in the game in this region. The academy has an area of about 30,000 square feet and will have about 8 courts. The indoor stadium can seat about 4,300 audiences making it one of the most spectacular academies in this part of the world.
The academy will have a commercial academy which will train students from all walks of life including corporates for an annual fee and an Excellence centre which will focus on nurturing future champions.
The Centre of Excellence will have about 25 talented students in the age group 8-15 years to begin with. Preference will be given to the students from surrounding areas and other parts of UP. These students will be sponsored by the academy. The academy will have a head foreign coach and a host of Indian coaches to nurture the talent. The academy will use the methods & techniques which have been tried and tested so far by Gopichand as well as methods that have evolved over the years of exposure to Global Badminton system.
It is a unique facility wherein 3 different agencies are coming together to make this happen- Gopichand, GNIDA and Sportzlive. The threefold responsibility of commercial management, technical management and facilities management will be fulfilled by SportzLive, Gopichand and the sports complex respectively. The academy is likely to become operational by early October this year.
Speaking on the occasion Gopichand said: “We are very excited since this is my first academy in this part of the country and we look forward to promote the badminton culture here. This academy will be modelled on the excellence centre we have built in Hyderabad and over the next few years we expect talented players to emerge out of here too.”
Mr. Deepak Agarwal, CEO of GNIDA said: “It is a great pleasure to partner with the Gopichand Academy and SportzLive. The academy and the stakeholders involved, share the unified vision of developing the sport and producing future badminton champions from this academy. We firmly believe that the academy will contribute towards the societal, economic and cultural development of the region”
Mr. Atul Pande, MD SportzLive said: “We as SportzLive are privileged to partner with the Gopichand Academy and the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority. We believe that the National Capital Region and North India is ready for a world class badminton facility and we expect all stakeholders, corporates in this area and the Badminton loving public to help and support the grooming of the future generations of champions”
