Low-freebies policy makes Pune cricket stadium a money spinner

A tough stand adopted by the Maharashtra Cricket Association on distribution of free passes for IPL matches held in Pune is helping franchisees get the highest gate collections for a stadium in the country.

The three matches played by Kings XI Punjab here this IPL season will give its owners over ₹9 crore in gate collections, which is more than twice as much their collections at their home ground in Mohali.

“The host association is supposed to get 15% of the tickets as complimentary, but we take less than one percent as we have taken a tough stand against doling out freebies,” explains Ajay Shirke, MCA President and member of the IPL governing council.

“People think it is their right to get free passes,” he says, pointing to a stack of “demand letters” he clearly has little intention of honouring.

Though the IPL venue norms provides for 15% complimentary passes, the ground reality is quite different, going as high as 35% of the seating capacity in some cities, he says. Shirke is no stranger to tough stands, preferring to cancel a one-day cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in 2007, rather than yielding to what he calls ‘arm twisting tactics’ to garner an “unreasonable” number of free tickets.

The 3-year-old, 38,000-seat stadium at Gahunje itself has a somewhat chequered history; the now beleaguered Sahara Group had committed to pay a net amount of ₹200 crore (of ₹300 crore project cost) in return for rights that included naming it the Subrata Roy Sahara stadium.

For two years, the Group’s team, Pune Warriors India, played home matches here.

After shelling out a part of the money (₹97 crore), Sahara defaulted on payments, and following a year of non-payment, the MCA sent them a ‘termination of agreement’ notice and even covered-up the prominently displayed name plate.

The matter is currently sub-judice. Sahara’s default has also led the MCA having to re-schedule ₹85 crore of outstanding loan, and shelve a second phase of construction for building additional stands, Shirke says.

The stand-off coupled with the withdrawal of the Pune Warriors team left the stadium un-utilised for any spectator event for two years, till the Punjab team chose to play three of its seven home matches at Pune this year. The last of their matches will be held tonight (April 18).

The gate collection economics will surely bring in more takers, Shirke is convinced.

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