Budget 2026: Sports set to get a bigger pie as India warms up for Commonwealth Games and Olympics

New Delhi: The government is set to significantly ramp up budgetary support for sports and sports infrastructure, as India prepares to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and bids for the 2036 Olympics, people familiar with the matter said.

The upcoming budget may announce a multi-year capital outlay to create world-class sports infrastructure over the next 10 years, including training centres for every key Olympic sport, a well-established mechanism to identify talent and a National Institute of Sports Science and Research, signalling a decisive shift from athlete promotion to building a sports ecosystem, they said.

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“The idea is to create a large corpus fund to be spent over five to seven years to build world-class sports infrastructure, with higher spending, private sector participation and institutional reforms at the core, if India is to aim to host events such as the Olympics,” a senior official said.

The official did not specify the amount, which would be subject to final approval, but said it would be “substantially high”.

Over the last 10 years, the government has increased the sports ministry’s budget by about 131%, to ₹3,794 crore in 2025–26 from ₹1,643 crore in 2014–15. Officials, however, acknowledge that hosting global multi-sport events will require a step change in both spending and execution.

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“Budget 2026–27 is likely to be the starting point of a 10-year build-out, not a one-off spike,” another official said. The ministry is already working on a 10-year roadmap to identify sporting talent and prepare athletes to compete at the international level, the official added.

Private participation will be sought for building large-scale stadiums and sports complexes, training centres and for organising events. The government may actively encourage private investment in projects similar to the Veer Savarkar International Sports Complex in Ahmedabad, which has emerged as a multi-sport infrastructure facility.

“The idea is to move beyond government-only funding and crowd in long-term private capital, especially for stadiums, athlete villages and sports cities,” the official said, adding that clarity on land use, revenue sharing, naming rights and non-sporting revenue streams could be part of the policy framework.

Another focus area is the creation of a national technology platform to track athletes from grassroots competitions to elite levels. This platform would integrate data from schools, Khelo India events and state academies, while also strengthening sports federations by professionalising management and hiring more specialists at the leadership level.