The Hindu Business Line : Royal Challengers achieves breakeven

Bangalore, June 10 The UB Group’s Bangalore Royal Challengers may have finished somewhere close to the bottom of the table of the Indian Premier League’s T-20 tournament, but surprisingly the group itself has not lost any money from this ambitious venture.

While everyone expected the team to incur huge losses because of its poor outing, UB Group’s marketing and financial whiz kids have ensured that the company’s fortunes remain in good health.

The UB Group President and Chief Financial Officer, Mr Ravi Nedungadi, told Business Line that the Bangalore Royal Challengers has achieved breakeven in its first year of operations. “Contrary to what everyone believed, gate collections were enormous,” he said.

Mr Nedungadi said some of the group companies had invested between Rs 10 crore and Rs 15 crore on sponsorships as well as for buying corporate boxes at the cricket stadium to house their guests. “These were basically investments. But we did manage to break even,” he said.

A marketing analyst said with the UB Group’s marketing budget every year being between Rs 350 crore and Rs 400 crore, its marketing team was experienced enough to make any new launches a success.

Marketing success

Sports management company GoSports’ Director, Mr Nandan Kamath, pointed out that the tournament itself was an exceptional marketing success. He said that the format, the packaging, the sideshows and the game itself were such that the tournament attracted more people than ever before and, having brought them there, it kept them glued. “Some would call the IPL “dumbing-down” or “glamourising”, of cricket, “highlights-cricket” or “Bolly-cricket” for that matter; but, then again, marketing is about finding the common factor and then spreading the word, isn’t it? If those are indeed the metrics, you can’t fault the IPL either for effort or for result,” he said.

Mr Kamath also said that henceforth, the franchises will have to work harder and reach out to the catchment areas and create new affiliations and build on those that already exist. “Franchises will have to be more strategic on their recruiting mechanisms, long-term talent development policies, marketing priorities and their connections with their fan bases,” he said. He said owners, players and fans will have to get into more symbiotic relationships for continued success of the format.