In a short duration, high visibility sporting events have become a new trend in Indian sports and are reasonably popular amongst the aspirational middle classes
City-based leagues in which teams are owned by franchises is the latest fashion in Indian sports. This concept has clicked in some sports but has not been very successful in others. The recipe to success for these leagues is provided by the fusion of entertainment, glamour, international players, plus Bollywood and cricket stars owning teams and big money. Slick television coverage and prolonged marketing also makes such leagues glamorous. The World Kabaddi league, the Indian Super league, the Champions Tennis league, Hockey India league, the Champions Professional Tennis league are associated with glamour, quick money and fame, and so are products the aspirational middle class in India wants to identify with.
Many young Indians also think exposure to such franchise-based leagues is a catalyst to improve the standards of sports in India. The emerging middle class also identifies with such leagues as they provide entertainment and seem efficiently organised. In contrast, the existing National Sports Federations seem riddled with factionalism, nepotism and corruption. The franchise-based leagues have a lot of glamour quotient so the print and electronic media also focuses more on them. Consequently, the coverage of traditional domestic sports tournaments or national championships (except cricket) gets systematically sidelined or ignored. This leads to a chicken and egg situation as without adequate media exposure, the historical tournaments of India like Durand Football Tournament (started in 1888 and the third oldest in the world), the Beighton Cup Hockey Tournament in Kolkata and the Nehru Hockey Tournament (commenced in Delhi, 1964) are struggling to survive.
Historically, the concept of franchise based leagues started with the advent of the IPl in 2008. The IPl template has spawned many imitators. Some succeeded, some did not. The third edition of Hero India Hockey league will be staged in 2015 with increased auction price and prize money. Celebrities like John Abraham and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are associated with some of the clubs. The Badminton league, which kick-started in August 2013, faced financial difficulties despite the presence of several world class players including India’s pride and joy Saina Nehwal. Sponsors are not forthcoming and there is uncertainty if a second edition will be held.
The success story of 2014 was how an under-hyped sport like kabaddi came massively into public focus. From relative obscurity, kabaddi captured the public imagination and TV audience. As a competitive sport, kabaddi was first introduced in the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, and India had won the gold medal in the inaugural edition. Since then India has won Asiad gold medals in kabaddi from 1990 to 2014. However, despite this success, it did not become popular and was ignored by the burgeoning middle classes. The players would get honoured by the Government of India and then sink into obscurity. It was perceived as a rural sport popular in North India, with little appeal to a more sophisticated urban audience.
However, the fusion of slick TV coverage and entertainment provided by the presence of glamorous film stars as owners of teams helped even kabaddi capture the national imagination. It even benefitted from having rival leagues telecast by Sony Six and Star TV. Both channels reported massive viewing figures.
Sony Six opted for an international league, which involved NRI players from Canada, Britain and USA. It was called the Wave World Kabaddi league with a knock out final; United Singhs shocked the front runners, Khalsa Warriors, when it mattered most in the closing minutes of the inaugural Wave World Kabaddi league final and became the champions. The win also fetched them a lucrative prize of Rs1.80 crore and the glittering trophy. The final played in front of a packed house at the International Hockey Stadium in Mohali, saw a tense and nail-biting finish. United Singhs, which had only 12 wins in the first phase as compared to 17 by Khalsa, trailed for three quarters of the match before scraping through for a 58-55 win. In the third place play-off earlier, California Eagles beat Vancouver lions 66-57. The runner-up Khalsa Warriors got a cheque of Rs90 lakh while California Eagles got Rs45 lakh and the fourth placed team Vancouver lions received Rs21 lakh.
Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab and also Chairman of the Wave WKl, came for the final and sat through the match. Badal said he was extremely happy that an Indian sport like kabaddi was now global. He said he had encouraged the creation of the Wave WKl to give the sport more focus and to give its players a chance to play in a more organised way. He felt the sport was now ready to rival cricket in Punjab and more so in rural areas. Glamour was provided by the United Singh’s co-owner, film star Sonakshi Sinha, who also attended the final.
Clever marketing also led to Star TV’s Pro Kabaddi league (PKl) being a huge success. The event was promoted by film stars ranging from Amitabh Bachchan to Priyanka Chopra of sports biopic Mary Kom fame. Initially it was felt that the promotion by film stars and their presence at the stadiums ensured capacity crowds. And that the perception about kabaddi as a TV sport changed because of their involvement as owners of the franchises. For instance, Abhishek Bachchan’s team won the inaugural PKl.
However, remarkably during the course of the PKl, urban viewers also started realising and appreciating the sheer athleticism, speed and tactics involved in the sport. It even surprised Anand Mahindra, co-promoter of Mashal Sports, the league organisers. He feels that pro-kabaddi is India’s new sports revolution. According to Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India, about 500 million viewers watched the entire competition. It seemed unthinkable at the start of event, but gradually kabaddi got taken as a serious sport.
State-of-the-art technical equipment such as 14 cameras, including ultra-slow motion cameras that magnified the smallest details on the field, crane cameras for overhead shots, all delivered by a world class team, played a part as it made for great prime time viewing.
The ultimate success of PKl was that it became a visual spectacle, popular amongst a rural and urban audience. Veteran commentator and TV anchor Charu Sharma, the brains behind this event, aptly said: “It was a visual spectacle which caught the fancy of the people. I think our success lies in not only retaining rural fans, but making it appealing for the urban audience at the same time. I think it did the trick.”
While the two kabbadi leagues were very successful in 2014, the tennis leagues struggled to make an impact. In a sport like tennis, which thrives on individual contests, the franchise-based team events have not taken off. The Champions Tennis league (CTl) conceived by Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj was designed to be spectator and TV friendly with one-set matches. However, it did not click.
On the inaugural day at the RK Khanna Stadium, the attendance at the match between local team Delhi Dreams and Punjab Marshalls was negligible. The turnout marginally improved the next day as the organisers invited school children to attend the matches gratis.
When the action shifted to Chandigarh, the organisers offered discounted tickets to tennis trainees and their parents but there was tepid response. So the Punjab franchise, the Punjab Marshalls, decided to give away tickets priced in the range of Rs600, Rs1,000 and Rs2,000 free of cost. Tennis enthusiasts who had bought tickets got an extra free ticket from the organisers along with the refund.
This venue had a modest capacity of just 2,000, but without free tickets it was feared that it would remain mostly empty. Even with free tickets being distributed, only half the venue was filled and the number kept decreasing as fans watched leander Paes in action and then went home.
An empty stadium does not look good on a live telecast, which has invariably hyped such events as a mind-blowing contest. So to make this event look popular on TV, the organisers of the CTl resorted to the gimmickry of giving away free tickets in the name of ‘promotion of tennis’. The CTl had stars in their ranks like Grand Slam winners Martina Hingis, Venus Williams, Pat Cash, Juan Carlos Ferrero and India’s pride leander Paes, but they were past their prime. As doubts arose about the CTl’s competitiveness the spectators stayed away and this concept has not clicked.
Mahesh Bhupathi’s International Premier Tennis league (IPTl) is even more ambitious and involves city-based teams like Indian Aces, Manila Mavericks, Singapore Slammers and UAE Royals. One major advantage of both these tournaments is that super stars like Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Maria Sharapova have played on Indian soil.
lucrative auctions and big money deals procured by some players also gains a lot of media attention, thereby popularising the franchise based leagues concept. For the third edition of the Hero Hockey India league, 95 Indian players and 54 foreigners were available for the auction. Belgian forward Tom Boon emerged as the costliest player ever of the Hero Hockey India league (HIl) at the bidding in November 2014. New outfit Dabang Mumbai acquired Boon for a whopping $103,000 for the 2015 season, against his base price of $20,000, netting him more than $25,000 per week in the four-week event.
Australian midfielder Matthew Swann, bagged by Mumbai for $78,000, was the second costliest, while star goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, bought by Uttar Pradesh Wizards for $69,000 (base price $26,000), was the most expensive Indian player, and third overall.
In fact, the Mumbai outfit, which retained only four players from the old franchise, dominated the auction. The side coached by German Valentin Altenburg pocketed nine players of the top 15 costliest names. India junior defender and penalty-corner expert Harmanpreet Singh was purchased by Mumbai for a stunning $51,000 against his modest base price of $2,600. The aspirational middle class gets voyeuristic pleasure in reading about such financial dealings and it gives the leagues a distinct glamour.
Amidst such hype too, sponsors get attracted to them. local tournaments, which have sustained Indian hockey for decades, suffer due to lack of funds. For instance, a major sponsor like Torex withdrew from the 51st Nehru Hockey Tournament and so the winning team’s prize money was reduced by half to Rs2.5 lakh.
Celebrities owning franchises, big money and famous names from abroad made the inaugural Indian Soccer league (ISl) a much-hyped and glamorous event. The eight franchises are estimated to have spent about Rs35-40 crore each. Bulk of the money was spent on the marquee players such as Alessandro del Piero (Delhi Dynamos approx salary Rs10.8 crore), Elano Blumer (Chennaiyan FC, approx cost Rs4.8 crore), Robert Pires (FC Goa, approx salary Rs4 crore), Fredrik ljunberg and Nicolas Anelka (Mumbai City FC, approx salaries Rs4.4 and Rs6 crore), David Trezeguet (Pune City FC, approx salary Rs4.5 crore) and Juan Capdevilla (North-east United, Rs3 crore). The ISl’s prize money was more than ten times of what is offered in the I-league. The total prize money was Rs15 crore with the winners getting Rs8 crore and the runners up Rs4 crore. Indian players like internationals Subrata Pal, Syed Rahim Nabi and Gourmangi Singh also earned a whopping Rs80 lakh for a season which lasted from October 12 to December 20.
The stadiums were spruced up and a festive atmosphere prevailed with popcorn, pizzas, cold drinks and chips on sale. The presence of celebrity owners, Abhishek Bachchan (Chenaiyan FC), Rishi Kapoor (Mumbai City FC), Hrithik Roshan (Pune City FC), Sourav Ganguly (Atletico de Kolkata) and Sachin Tendulkar (Kerala Blasters) added to the excitement and an increase in spectators. International players from 15 countries, including nine from Spain and Brazil took part in the ISl. The numerous foreign players in each franchise also created a lot of excitement. A new generation of football fans came to the stadiums, hoping to see celebrity actors and actresses.
The ISl successfully crossed the first hurdle. The crowds returned to witness Indian football. The average attendance after 42 matches was about 24,000, which was way above the average of the J-league (17,000), A-league, Australia league (18,000) K-league, South Korea league (8,066). Tickets sales after the first few rounds were well over Rs2 crore and TV viewership was estimated at about 21 crore people.
However non-stop travel, different playing conditions and fixture congestion (61 matches in 70 days) and injuries to stars (del Piero, Elano, ljunberg and Stiven Mendoza) led to the interest gradually waning. Media and spectator interest declined towards the last stages of the league phase. Still Indian football could benefit if a new generation of fans starts watching local football. The Indian players in the franchises will also hopefully improve their expertise by interacting with top professionals from Europe and South America. In future editions of the ISl, there should be greater involvement of Indian coaches, especially those with an A license degree and a re-look at the quality of the marquee players.
So, though many of the team franchises have not made profit or even broken even, these short duration, high visibility sporting events have become a new trend in Indian sports and are reasonably popular amongst the aspirational middle classes.