Sportsfield, home to legends, to be demolished and redeveloped

Mumbai: Sportsfield on Worli sea face is an address that has instant recall for most sports fans in India. The 9-storey building is where some of India’s biggest sporting legends live, or have lived--Polly Umrigar, Ajit Wadekar, Eknath Solkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri to name a few.

The building, land for which was sanctioned by Maharashtra government after India’s first Cricket World Cup win in 1983 and which was completed in 1987, is to be demolished and then redeveloped.

A tender inviting offers from reputed developers for the building’s redevelopment has already been floated. “The existing society member are Indian Sports legend making it a prestigious project not only by location but (also) by stature,” reads the notice. The building, with an unrestricted sea view, has 18 residential flats, one commercial property occupied by a bank, and it stands on a 1716.85 square meter plot.

“The building is around 35 years old, and now faced with several problems including that of leakage and inadequate parking,” said Dilip Vengsarkar who lives on the 5th floor. “We are now looking to redevelop the building and have floated the tender for developers to apply.”

Vengasarkar added that the redevelopment will not only give Sportsfield residents bigger flats but also ample parking space since most flat owners now have two or more vehicles. The developer too will get extra Floor Space Index which will them to open up sale to outsiders as well.

Architect Mukund Godbole, of Godbole Mukadam and Associates the architectural firm which issued the tender, said, “There are many Development Control Rules under which redevelopment can be carried out therefore at this point it will be premature to say how much the FSI will be—that’s something only the redeveloper, once finalised, can share.” August 6, 2022 is the deadline for developers to make their offer to the Sportsfield management committee, he added.