IPL 2021 – Ticket Revenues goes for toss for IPL franchises: With IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel announcing that there will not be any spectators for the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the franchisees fear losing Rs 25 to 35 crore each. For second year running, ticket sales as source of revenue for each franchise is all set to be completely wiped out of their PNL. InsideSport spoke to some of the franchises including Chennai Super Kings & Punjab Kings, check what they have to say.
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“Yes, after last year’s loss, we are a bit worried about this year’s revenue loss as well. I would say the loss could be around Rs 25 crore. But more than that we are going to lose our fans. That’s our biggest concern,” CSK CEO Kashi Viswanathan told InsideSport.co on Monday.
The IPL Governing Council Chairman informed InsideSport.co on Sunday that BCCI members have decided that in-venue spectators will not be allowed this year for the entire duration of IPL 2021.
“Yes, I can confirm that there will be no spectators allowed for this season. Not for a single match. We will have a Governing Council meeting in the next two days to ratify these decisions. The decision to take Mumbai as a venue was difficult. But we believe things will improve. But we are keeping our options open (to opt for a replacement venue in case the situation goes out of hand,” Brijesh Patel told Inside Sport in an exclusive interview on Sunday evening.
IPL 2021: How no in-venue spectators decision will impact the franchises?
The decision will impact franchises in a big manner. First they will lose on the direct ticket sales revenues which tantamount to minimum 24-25 Cr for each franchise and go up to 40 Cr for the teams like Mumbai Indians.
Second big impact will be felt in the sponsorship tie-ups franchises are weaving for IPL 2021. According to few industry experts, in IPL 2020 as well brands had negotiated with franchises on the account of ’matches behind closed doors’ diktat. The same is likely to happen this year as well as the associated brands will not able to activate themselves with the crowds in the stadium – they may ask franchises for the discount on this account.
But some teams are still hoping that the situation might get better and BCCI may decide to allow fans in the stadiums at a later stage of the tournament.
Punjab Kings CEO Satish Menon said he was optimistic that the loss could be minimised. “We are still discussing with IPL and BCCI to find a solution. We hope and pray things get normal and some spectators are allowed in the later stage. We had spectators in the Test matches as well. So lets see, things might change. So putting a figure at this stage will be premature.”
IPL 2021: Neutral Venues another concern area for the franchises
As per the schedule released by the BCCI all IPL matches this edition will be played on the neutral venues.
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What does this mean ? This means MS Dhoni will not play any match in Chennai and Rohit Sharma will not play any match in Mumbai. All the teams will play their IPL League games at Neutral Venues.
“One of the major change of this edition of the VIVO IPL will be the fact that all matches will be played at neutral venues, no team will play at their home venue. All teams will play at 4 out of 6 venues during the league stage”, the BCCI release said.
Other than the concerns around the erosion of ticket revenues, franchises are concerned about those brand associations who have especially come to integrate with the team so that they can tap the regional market.
Few of the franchises InsideSport spoke to felt that some of these brand associations may go kaput because of all games being on neutral venues.
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