Sports, Fitness & Infrastructure Expo 2026: Dates, Venue, Highlights and Event Guide
Sports, Fitness & Infrastructure Expo 2026, usually shortened to SFI Expo, was the first edition of The Times of India's business-to-business exhibition for India's sports, fitness and sports infrastructure industries. It ran for three days, from 30 July to 1 August 2026, in Hall 14 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, and set out to put infrastructure developers, sports technology companies, fitness brands, equipment manufacturers, federations, government bodies and investors on one floor. This guide covers the dates, the venue, the organiser, the industry focus, the highlights, the audience and the questions people ask about the show.
Written by the HoloBox911 team, who supplied a hologram display to an exhibitor at SFI Expo 2026 · Updated 8 October 2026
SFI Expo 2026 at a glance
What is Sports, Fitness & Infrastructure Expo?
Sports, Fitness & Infrastructure Expo, usually shortened to SFI Expo, is a business-to-business exhibition and conference for India's sports, fitness and sports infrastructure industries. It was launched by The Times of India, and the 2026 show at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi was its first edition.
The show was built around a simple observation: the people who plan, build, equip and operate sporting facilities in India rarely meet the people who supply them in one place. SFI Expo set out to fix that, putting infrastructure developers, sports technology companies, fitness and performance brands, equipment manufacturers, federations, government bodies and investors on the same floor for three days.
The Times of India has positioned the expo as an annual platform rather than a one-off. It is aligned with national programmes including Khelo India and Fit India, and with the stated ambition of placing India among the top ten sporting nations by 2036 and the top five by 2047.
What SFI Expo covers
The organiser groups the exhibitor floor into six categories:
- Sports equipment and active lifestyle: sports goods, training equipment, sportswear and footwear, protective gear and golf equipment
- Sports technology and innovation: wearables, AI analytics, performance monitoring, smart arenas, digital fan engagement, e-sports and AR and VR training tools
- Sports materials and manufacturing: technical textiles, rubber, leather and composites, adhesives, CNC and moulding machinery, 3D printing and packaging
- Fitness, wellness and performance: gym and training equipment, rehabilitation devices, sports medicine, nutrition and recovery technology
- Sports infrastructure and development: stadium and arena developers, sports flooring, turf, seating, lighting and HVAC, roofing, scoreboards and LED screens
- Sports services, management and experiences: academies, federations, sports management firms, sports tourism operators and educational institutions
SFI Expo 2026 dates and schedule
SFI Expo 2026 ran for three days, from Thursday 30 July to Saturday 1 August 2026, at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Listings published ahead of the show gave daily opening hours of 10am to 6pm. The organiser did not publish a public session-by-session agenda, so the table below describes the exhibition days rather than a conference timetable.
| Date | What was on |
|---|---|
| Thursday 30 July 2026 | Day one of three. The exhibition floor in Hall 14 opened to registered trade visitors at 10am. |
| Friday 31 July 2026 | Day two. The exhibition ran for a full day on the same 10am to 6pm schedule, alongside the conference programme. |
| Saturday 1 August 2026 | Day three and closing day. The show closed at 6pm and stands were dismantled afterwards. |
Where was SFI Expo 2026 held?
SFI Expo 2026 was held in Hall 14 at Bharat Mandapam, the convention and exhibition complex inside Pragati Maidan in central New Delhi. Bharat Mandapam is owned by the Government of India and run by the India Trade Promotion Organisation. It was inaugurated in July 2023 and hosted the G20 Leaders' Summit that September, which makes it the country's flagship venue for shows of this kind.
The complex covers about 390,000 square metres, of which roughly 150,000 square metres is exhibition space spread across its halls. Hall 14 is one of the larger double-storey halls, and it held the whole of SFI Expo 2026 rather than a part of it, so everything described in this guide took place under one roof.
Getting there is straightforward. The nearest Metro station is Supreme Court on the Delhi Metro Blue Line, next to Gate 10. Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station is about three kilometres away, and Gate 4, on Bhairon Marg, is the gate normally opened to exhibition visitors.
Who organises Sports, Fitness & Infrastructure Expo?
SFI Expo is organised by The Times of India, published by Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. The 2026 edition was the newspaper group's first move into the exhibitions business, and it was launched as an annual platform rather than a single show.
The Times of India
The expo is run through the group's response and brand capital division. Announcing the launch, its president for response and brand capital, Surinder Chawla, framed the show around the view that India is entering a new era in sport, and described the aim as an integrated platform spanning the sports, fitness, technology and infrastructure value chain.
Government backing
The expo was unveiled by Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, together with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The organiser has aligned the show with national programmes including Khelo India, the Fit India movement and Sports Authority of India initiatives.
A trade show, not a public one
SFI Expo runs strictly as a business-to-business event. Its stated audience is sports enterprises, infrastructure companies, government bodies, fitness and wellness firms, federations, investors and innovators, rather than the general public, and entry is for registered trade visitors.
Contact and registration
Visitor and exhibitor enquiries go through the official site at toisfiexpo.timesofindia.com. For the 2026 edition the organiser published exhibit@timesofindia.com and +91 84477 26565 as its contact points, and visitors could pre-register online before the show.
SFI Expo 2026 theme and industry focus
The Times of India did not publish a named strapline theme for the first edition in the way some annual conferences do. What it did publish is a clear industry focus, organised around four pillars, and a stated purpose: to bring together the business, technology and policy sides of Indian sport in one place.
Sports infrastructure
Stadium and arena systems, sports flooring, turf and tracks, seating, lighting, HVAC, roofing and tensile structures, scoreboards and LED screens, and playground and leisure facilities. This pillar covers the physical building of venues, from a municipal playing field to a competition arena, and it is where aquatic facilities such as pools, filtration and water treatment also sit.
Sports technology and innovation
Wearables, AI analytics, performance monitoring, smart arenas, digital fan engagement, e-sports platforms, smart facility systems and AR and VR training tools. The pillar reflects how much of the current investment in Indian sport is going into software, data and visualisation rather than concrete.
Fitness and performance
Commercial gym and training equipment, rehabilitation devices, sports medicine, nutrition, recovery technology and wellness facilities. This is the part of the show aimed at fitness chains, clubs, academies, hotels, resorts and corporate wellness buyers rather than at competition venues.
Goods and manufacturing
Technical textiles, rubber, leather and composites, adhesives, CNC and moulding machinery, 3D printing, packaging, protective equipment and trophies. India's sports goods manufacturing base is one of the sectors the Union Budget 2026-27 singled out for support, with ₹500 crore allocated to promoting sports goods manufacturing, research and innovation in equipment design and material sciences.
Highlights of SFI Expo 2026
What was on the floor
The exhibition was the centre of the show: three days of stands across the six exhibitor categories, with product launches and live demonstrations rather than catalogue displays. Ahead of the event the organiser projected more than 200 exhibitors from over 10 countries, showing upwards of 1,000 products and services.
- An exhibition floor spanning infrastructure, technology, fitness, goods, materials and sports services, with working equipment on the stands
- A conference programme running alongside the exhibition, aimed at the business, technology and policy sides of Indian sport
- Product launches and live demonstrations, including interactive and immersive technology used to show facilities too large to bring into a hall
- Structured networking between suppliers, federations, government and institutional buyers, academia and investors
What the show was aiming at
Two policy currents ran underneath the first edition, and the organiser referenced both:
- Olympic Vision 2036: the national ambition to place India among the top ten sporting nations by 2036 and the top five by 2047, which depends on building training and competition facilities at scale.
- Khelo India and Fit India: the government programmes the expo is aligned with, now reinforced by the Khelo India Mission announced in the Union Budget 2026-27, which covers talent pathways, coaching, sports science, leagues and facility development.
The sports, fitness and infrastructure industry in numbers
The figures below describe the Indian market SFI Expo was built to serve. Market sizes come from KPMG's Sportlight report on the business of sports in India, published in September 2025. Budget figures come from the Government of India's Union Budget 2026-27.
The full figures
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| India's sports economy | USD 19 billion, projected to reach USD 40 billion by 2030 (KPMG) |
| Growth rate of the sports economy | 12 to 14 per cent a year (KPMG) |
| Sports infrastructure investment | USD 2.7 billion, projected to reach USD 6 billion by 2030 (KPMG) |
| Sports goods manufacturing | USD 6.7 billion, projected to reach USD 11 billion by 2030 (KPMG) |
| Sports technology sector | USD 1.6 billion (KPMG) |
| Sports sponsorship, 2024 | ₹16,633 crore, with non-cricket sponsorship up 19 per cent year on year (KPMG) |
| Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, 2026-27 | ₹4,479.88 crore (BE), up ₹1,133 crore on the 2025-26 revised estimate of ₹3,346 crore |
| Sports goods manufacturing scheme | ₹500 crore allocated in the Union Budget 2026-27 |
| Government sports facilities | More than 1,000 Khelo India Centres and more than 100 Sports Authority of India centres (KPMG) |
Market and facility figures are from KPMG's Sportlight report on the business of sports in India, published on 25 September 2025. Budget figures are from the Government of India's Union Budget 2026-27, presented on 1 February 2026.
