Brand IPL

Look at the state of so many sports today. In football, many European clubs are on the verge of bankruptcy. World Cup or not, does anybody even follow hockey anywhere? Name one golfer you know other than Tiger Woods. Tennis is so boring (unless you are a Federer fan). In Formula 1, many of the top manufacturers dropped out. And they had to get Michael Schumacher out of retirement to try and bring in the crowds!

And then there is the IPL in stark contrast to all of the above. Consider this: we are not talking of cricket, the sport. Or even T20 in general. Just IPL, an under 2 months extravaganza once a year.

Check out IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi’s confidence. He said, “Our objective is to be the single largest sporting league in the world”. Such naked ambition is the exact opposite of the traditional British sentiments normally associated with cricket. But can he get there?

For starters, he has commercialized cricket to a level never thought possible. The IPL brand is valued at $4.1 billion by Brand Finance UK. That’s billion with a “b”. In US dollars. When the IPL tried to auction two additional franchisee slots, one of the requirements was that each prospective owner should have a net worth of $1 billion. That’s the scale on which this man now thinks. And there’s a no shortage of Indian conglomerates with that kind of net worth. Mukesh Ambani’s net worth alone is $29 billion. The world’s 4th richest man. But wait. He already owns a team.

The primary audience is obviously India. After all, Indians eat, drink and breathe cricket. With so many addicted to the sport, can the advertisers be far behind? But Modi is not restricting himself to India. Or just to TV for that matter. In January, IPL announced a deal with YouTube to stream live games free globally. (Except the U.S. since Willow TV holds the North America Internet rights.) This makes IPL the first major sporting event to be streamed live across the globe. Imagine that! Does this guy have business sense or what? Could this be the beginning of all live sports getting streamed online? But that’s another story.

With YouTube, who knows how many world over would watch IPL just to see what the fuss is all about. And maybe even create new markets! Not likely? Well, it’s not impossible either.

Some call IPL too aggressive, an example of sports capitalism gone wild. But then, Modi’s proclaimed aim is make the IPL like the NBA. And that’s as big a sporting brand as any.

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