Ticket sales for the third season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which began on Friday are expected to boom as the cricket tournament returns to home soil after last year's South African diversion.
Cashing in: Deccan Chargers' players celebrate the wicket of Sourav Ganguly during the first IPL match of 3 in Navi Mumbai on Friday. PTI
Cashing in: Deccan Chargers' players celebrate the wicket of Sourav Ganguly during the first match of IPL 3 in Navi Mumbai on Friday. PTI
Officials at five of the eight teams Mint spoke with said 80% of tickets for the first three home matches have been been snapped up, in contrast with the first two IPL seasons.
Ticket sales took a while to pick up in the inaugural season in 2008, while the relocation to South Africa meant few could attend the Indian matches.
"In season 1, most ticket sales for home matches happened two days before the match, but now we are all sold out for the first two matches and 60% for the third home game," said Rakesh Singh, marketing head of Chennai Super Kings , which is looking at a 66% jump in revenue from 2008. The team is scheduled to play its first home match on Sunday, its second on 21 March and the third on 31 March.
Rajasthan Royal's chief marketing officer Raghu Iyer is expecting a 300% increase in ticket sales this year compared with season 1, with "tickets for most of our seven home games already maxed out. The team's decision to add Ahmedabad as One of the host venues apart from Jaipur stadium could help boost attendance.
The story is no different for the Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils, all of whom reported an overwhelming demand for tickets, with revenue expectations exceeding those of previous seasons by 25-100%.
"There is no doubt that IPL is a bigger product today, but what has really helped sell tickets this year is that the all the teams have set up a strong distribution network through partners, big and small, that are eager to ride on the IPL brand, "said Amrit Mathur, Chief Operating Officer of GMR Sports Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of GMR Holdings Ltd. that owns the Delhi team. The Daredevils have ticketing partners such as ING Vysya Bank, bill payment service provider Easy Bill and Bookmyshow.com, besides sales through IPL's website.
On Bookmyshow.com, for instance, ticket sales had crossed RS10 crore for Mumbai Indians and over RS8 crore for Kings XI Punjab as of 12 March.
Deccan Chargers chairman V. Shankar was worried that the matches moving out of Hyderabad would dampen interest in the team. "But the response has been better than expected, with the first few matches almost sold out," he said. The matches were moved to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Nagpur and Cuttack owing to security concerns over the ongoing pro-Telangana state movement. But the team is upbeat about revenue through ticket sales and hopes to see a 40% jump to RS14 crore this year compared with season 1
The IPL management teams had compensated for loss in ticket sales last year due to the move to South Africa. Team owners, however, say that the amount they made was still significantly lower than season 1 sales.
Apart from the box-office, teams are getting another Rs3 crore from the IPL management, which has struck a deal with them to reserve the best seats in the house for their own club-membership initiative.
Under this scheme, tickets are being sold at a premium of Rs45, 000 each context, confirmed an executive from one of the above mentioned teams, who did not want to be identified in this. Revenue from the elite club membership IPL will benefit directly.
The boost in ticket sales stems from a coordinated team effort not just from individual franchisees, but from the IPL management as well.
In a meeting with Mint last month, Sundar Raman, chief executive of IPL, had said that while the first two seasons of the tournament were dedicated to building the IPL brand and creating a fan base, the focus this year is to push ticket sales.
The recent marketing campaigns have focused on building excitement around the in-stadium experience. While cinema halls will be showing matches for the first time, they will not be able to show games being played locally. "You will not get the feed for those home matches," said Jayendra Banerji, vice-president (operations) for Satyam Cineplex, which is showing the championship in four locations in New Delhi and Indore.
Theater owners say watching IPL in movie halls would be an improvement on television. "What you are seeing on a (movie) screen be bigger than you want to see on the television. I am not only talking about the size, that is, but the scope, "says Amitabh Vardhan, chief executive of PVR Cinemas, which is showing IPL matches in 19 theater complexes. "You will be seeing more 33%."
Ahead of the opening tournament, television news channels settled their dispute with the IPL board and the official broadcaster footage showing over, according to Lalit Modi, IPL chairman and commissioner.
"We're going to review (the agreement) in June. The idea was to go forward. Both parties had a long dialogue before coming to an understanding last night, "Modi said.
No comments:
Post a Comment