Cooperage Ground


The Cooperage Football Stadium is a football stadium in Mumbai, India. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Air India FC and ONGC FC.
The Western India Football Association also operates from the Cooperage Ground. The Mumbai District Football Association also hold a small office. It was a venue for one of India's premier national leagues, the I-League.

Stadium

The stadium was a one-tier stadium with roofing only under the main stand. The seating was of wooden planks. The stadium was completely dismantled and as of May 2012 is undergoing renovation. The new stadium will have a capacity of around 30,000 people. There will be bucket seats installed unlike the previous wooden planks. One of the 10 FIFA sanctioned artificial turfs has been installed here.

History

The Cooperage Football Stadium has been around since 1993 but has not really been used to a real extent till 2007 when the I-League was created. The stadium was reopened in 2014 after renovation works were completed.
In April 2011 plans were announced for the Cooperage Football Stadium to be renovated when FIFA announced that they would give the Western India Football Association US$ 2 million in order to renovate that stadium. On 12 June 2011 it was announced in the Bombay High Court that the West India Football Association would be given the right to renovate the Cooperage Ground. The stadium and the surrounding complex was designed by Shashi Prabhu and Associates, a leading architectural firm from Mumbai. While the stadium was being renovated the two I-League teams Mumbai F.C. and Air India FC would have to play their matches at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune.