Despite the court order on the ban of the two most popular IPL teams, sponsors supporting Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings, are not a jittery lot.
Most of them have adopted a wait and watch approach, since the BCCI is likely to appeal against the verdict and the team owners too do not expect their sponsors to ditch them in a hurry.
“It is an interesting day for IPL, but the verdict is not binding and the BCCI will go to court and fight it. Teams like CSK and Rajasthan Royals have a huge fan base and its sponsors will not panic immediately, instead adopt a wait and watch approach, said Tuhin Mishra, MD, Baseline, a sports marketing company.
Mumbai-based Mitashi Electronics, which had renewed its sponsorship contract with Rajasthan Royals, is not enthused by the ban.
“We regret having renewed our sponsorship with Rajasthan Royals and the investment has not been worth it,’’ said Rakesh Dugar, CMD, Mitashi Electronics.
However, most of the sponsors for these two teams are guarded about disclosing any future decisions on their investment.
Rajasthan Royals has 15 sponsors today, among which companies such as Birla Group, UltraTech (principal sponsor), CP Plus (Home Security), TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) and Mitashi Electronics have renewed their contracts last season.
However, sponsors like Amity (Business school) and Yatra.com were some of the erstwhile sponsors who exited the team when the controversy about spot fixing broke out in the past.
In a recent interaction with BusinessLine , Raghu Iyer, Chief Executive Officer, Rajasthan Royals, said, “Despite all the controversy surrounding Rajasthan Royals, we had new sponsors like CP Plus, Kalasalingham University, and Spice Telecom last season and revenues from our sponsorships have been growing at 10 per cent.’’
Principal sponsor, UltraTech, is estimated to pay ₹12-15 crore every year.
CSK with principal sponsor Aircel is also unlikely to lose its sponsorship deal. “The verdict has just been announced and we are reviewing our position in the matter,’’ was the cryptic statement from Aircel.
Aircel has been a loyal sponsor for CSK since inception of the team for the past eight years and is estimated to pay an average yearly sponsorship fee of ₹20 crore.