July 16, 2024
📰 FEATURE STORY
Have organised franchise leagues helped India’s sports ambitions grow?
Put aside all the scandals and controversies surrounding the Indian Premier League (IPL), and you’ve got one of the most successful corporate sporting experiments ever. The tournament was an instant hit, and the money flowed for sponsorships, TV rights, etc.
People saw the IPL’s success and had the understandable idea – let’s replicate this model for other sports. We’ve now got franchise-based leagues for kabaddi, hockey, and badminton, to name a few. Their success compared to the IPL might not stack up. Not many leagues do, but they have more eyeballs. However, have these leagues contributed to India’s overall sporting landscape to compete at the top level, like in the Olympics? Have they done anything for India’s sporting ambitions?
Context
Sporting traditions are broadly of two types. In the European model, sports clubs were formed by people representing a town or region. They were an integral part of society and often became cultural entities. Take cricket, for example. In 18th century England, the sport was synonymous with the aristocracy. When it came to India, it was first taken up by the elites before it became the widespread phenomenon it is today.
Then there’s the American model. The idea of sport is more of a moneymaking tool through franchises and leagues. The centre of the fan experience is entertainment, glitz, and glamour. Leagues like the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) have auctions where franchises pick their preferred players. Sound familiar?
The IPL is an example of where these two models meet. A colonial sport embraced the American franchise model and became one of the most lucrative sporting commodities in the world. After its runaway success, corporates and sporting officials applied the formula to other sports, from tennis to football to kabaddi.
The message was clear – India’s sporting ambitions were on clear display for the country and perhaps the world and a lot of money would be spent to spread that message. Sports administrators and corporate sponsors were placing big bets on these franchise-based leagues to help make India a sporting powerhouse.
IPL is somewhat of an outlier here. Cricket was already ingrained in the culture. The tournament was more or less a way to bolster Team India’s T20 credentials and obviously entertain the masses. Safe to say it has ticked both those boxes and then some.
But what about the others? A couple of ways to look at them are whether they’ve been successful as leagues themselves, and if they’ve contributed to India’s sporting ambitions. Have they helped those sports grow domestically and produced world-class athletes for the international stage?
VIEW: They’ve been solid foundations
The multiple franchise leagues have done many things for the Indian sporting landscape. One that stands out is quite simple – give people opportunities. A nobody can become somebody in minutes. It’s the yellow brick road. While cricket understandably takes up a large chunk of the mind share, it’s worthwhile to understand that sports like kabaddi or Kho Kho have had their own successes. They’re targeted toward the younger generation to educate them about indigenous sports. There’s a “small town” demographic reason to watch.
That small-town approach touches upon something important for the population – a bottom-up approach for people to showcase themselves and be exposed to better players. That leads to fostering enough Indian players to give selectors and officials the good problem of an abundance of talent. In essence, these professional franchise leagues widen the pool of quality players. From the players’ point of view, it opens up earning avenues. Sports can be a viable career option.
There’s also the economic and financial side. These leagues need to stick around if they’re to develop talent. What some leagues understood was to not compare themselves with the IPL. Even with revenue models similar to the IPL, the owners of the teams in several sports leagues are conservative with their money to keep finances solid. Other decisions were made to ensure long-term sustainability. The Pro Volleyball League (PVL) chose to have all its matches in one venue to save on costs. TV rights money, while obviously not as lucrative as the IPL, was more than enough.
COUNTERVIEW: Not much has changed
The franchise leagues are where sports administrators have more or less placed their bets on helping transform India into a sporting powerhouse. That’s no doubt put a lot of burden on them. It’s arguably fair to say that only the IPL has come close to hitting the mark, which shouldn’t have come as a surprise, given cricket’s popularity. It’s hard to measure success for the other leagues.
In football, the Indian Super League (ISL) has struggled to be in line with that of the national team, and the Indian football team is nowhere near the best in the world. But its shaky financial model meant some teams had to shut shop. Another example is the Champions Tennis League (CTL), Vijay Amritraj’s mastermind. Its broken financial model also resulted in its closure. From a broadcaster’s point of view, while there’s a decent amount of interest in non-cricket franchise leagues, there’s not a net profit to be made.
India is a broadcast and sponsorships market. That’s where all the money comes from. The question is, what’s happening to that money? Where is it going? Is it going to grassroots development or people’s pockets? While having the franchise leagues bring some glitz and glamour to the respective sports, unless the underlying issues of grassroots development and infrastructure get fixed, they won’t contribute much toward India’s global sporting ambitions.
Reference Links:
- From handball to panja, why sports leagues are taking off in India – Forbes
- How non-cricketing sports can fuel the economy of Sports leagues in India – The Financial Express
- Sports Business Beyond 22 Yards – Fortune
- Emerging nations: Franchising India’s sports – Sports Management
- Franchise leagues are here to stay – Deccan Herald
- Cognizant eyes Indian sports leagues after debut sponsorship in US Major League Cricket – Moneycontrol
- India’s sports leagues: Miles to go before they reap – Sportstar
What is your opinion on this?
(Only subscribers can participate in polls)
a) Organised franchise leagues have helped India’s sports ambitions.
b) Organised franchise leagues haven’t helped India’s sports ambitions.
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