Barring the nerve-wracking matches towards the end of the tournament, IPL4 has been a colossal disappointment to the franchise owners and BCCI. TV viewership dropping by more than 25% and empty stands even during knockout stages blaringly exposed the gaping holes in the IPL system and its organization. This was the first time that IPL was put to real test. The organizers have conveniently made World Cup as the obvious scapegoat on which the failures of IPL4 will be rested upon. But on the hindsight, it is the viewership fatigue after the World cup that has amplified the misgivings of IPL.
Time Window
If one takes the examples of leagues in sport such as Football, Basket Ball, Rugby, Baseball, Ice Hockey etc, the time between two games for a particular team is in the order of days unlike IPL where it is in the order of hours. A higher mean-time between two matches provide a good marketing opportunity to build up to each game and to create a buzz about each match. This seems to be impossible in IPL where there is no time even for the fan to take a breather. The fan has to encounter a match every 3 days on average and it’s quite an ask.
Unfortunately, having IPL happen over a span of 6 months is out of question when the international calendar is jam packed. This doesn’t happen in other sports as the international fixtures are usually sparse and are mostly friendly in nature. Expanding the time window of IPL will further deplete the IPL teams as no Board is going to allow their players to get tied with IPL for a longer period of time…unless, the BCCI is willing to share the pie. Currently BCCI is the only organization that reaps the monetary benefits of IPL and no other Board gets a penny.
Stadium experience
Currently, the ticketing system is pathetic and I’m surprised that nothing has changed since the last IPL. Even if you book the tickets online, you’ll still have to go to the stadium much before the match to collect the tickets. And most of the times when the online booking shows that the tickets are sold out, I see half empty stadiums on TV. Who the hell bought the tickets and never showed up? Half the spectators? Unlikely!
The experience of watching an IPL match should be similar to that of watching a movie. Ticket purchasing has to be uncomplicated, the entry to the stadium has to be efficient (without long queues) and there has to be some fun events at breaks during matches. If you are positioning IPL as ‘cricketainment’, then you start working on providing some hassle-free entertainment for each type of consumer and not just for the one who pays Rs.10,000/- for a match.
Fan Loyalty
For IPL to succeed in the long term, fan loyalty is going to be THE most important factor. Except for Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians (thanks to Sachin), none of the franchises seems to command a strong fan following. And franchise owners don’t seem to bother about it. They seems to trapped in the false assumption that once the team performs well, fan loyalty will become a given. Yes, performance of a team is important, but fan loyalty is much more than that.
To be fair on the organizers part, this is first time India is grappling with a high-profile league tournament that has loads of money invested in it. And all the franchise owners, in spite of being the shrewdest businessmen in the country, have no prior experience of handling a sports franchise. In fact, India has little talent pool to cater to the needs of organizing a sports league. If franchise owners employ the expertise from other prominent leagues across the world, something is sure to come good of it if not a dramatic turnaround.
When Lalit Modi unleashed the phenomenon called IPL three years ago, everything looked prosperous (with a $4.2 billion valuation during the 2nd season). However, IPL has come to terms with its fallacies for the first time this season and thankfully it has happened earlier than expected. Now it is up to BCCI and the franchise owners to embark upon the path that would to convert IPL into a short, slick and a memorable annual-affair.
No comments:
Post a Comment