While a lot can be attributed to the improving performances of our players in international sporting events, we cannot ignore the efforts of the sports broadcasters and marketers in popularizing these sports. The recent performance of the Indian team on the field has also not helped much. As a result, while broadcasters are aggressively pitching for non-cricketing sports to marketers, marketers too are taking a keen interest in the same.

With this backdrop, the marketing panel seeks to address some questions pertaining to this trend. We seek to ask whether these investments are justified in terms of returns? And how does one quantify returns in any case? Is there an international model that can be replicated in India or is there a need for a totally new model for the marketing of sports in the country? What dynamics could facilitate or play spoilsport in the resurrection of non-cricketing sports in the country?

What is sports marketing?

Sports marketing is defined as the application of marketing principals to sports properties as well as to non sports products using Sports. It is a set of all integrated activities designed to meet the needs and wants of sport consumers through exchange processes.
The process of exchange can be grouped together into three actors:
• Producers (Sponsor)
• Consumers (Fan)
• Property (Event/product)
Sports Producers include:
• Organizations ( Franchises, Colleges, Schools, Health Clubs) which earn direct revenues from the sport .
• Companies like Nike ,Reebok which sell sports properties and are also directly involved in the revenue chain of the sports marketing
• The companies like Reliance, Dabur which use the sports people as a media vehicle and use their market value to build their own brand equity.

Sports property includes the marketing of
• products, such as equipment, apparel, and footwear (merchandizing )
• services, such as skill lessons or club memberships and
• entities, such as leagues, teams, or individuals

Sports Consumers exchange money for a wanted good or service. They can be viewed as:
• Spectators as Consumers
         -Benefit by watching game
         -Exchange for tickets and entertainment
• Participants as Consumers
         -Benefit by playing or participating
         -Exchange for equip. & participation

The process of exchange between the three actors of sports marketing provides monetary as well as physiological benefit to all of them.

Cricket

The popularity of the sport depends a lot on what television can do with it. And Cricket, was just the perfect sport for this medium. Tea/ Lunch breaks, break between the overs etc. gave enough time to the sponsors to promote their products. Further innovations in the format, like day night/ white ball/ colored dresses etc., added to the popularity of the sport.
And the money followed the success. Cricket became the only sport in India which had huge money in it for the various stakeholders, atleast at the very top. It has been said that 60% of money in world cricket from India or India based companies. BCCI happens to be amongst the richest sporting bodies in the world with $1b in revenues. It gets approximately $17m for the telecast rights of an ODI. Apart from that it receives Rs.50 lacs/test match & Rs.43 lacs+ for an ODI from team sponsors.

An Indian match fetches the broadcaster about $8000 for 10 seconds. The players too get a huge pie in the booty. They get a Annual Retainer Amount from the BCCI & the Match fee which is around 2.5-3 lacs per match. Apart from this, the players make money from endorsements, events etc. Someone like Sachin Tendulkar makes app. Rs.400m p.a. & the latest sensation Dhoni gets Rs.80m p.a.

The TRPs during the World Cup showed a major decline after India’s poor performance. They were 5.46 % when the World Cup started on March 13, 7.25 % for the India Vs Bangladesh match on March 17, 8.39 % for the India Vs Bermuda match, 0.71 % after India’s lost to Sri Lanka. The advertising rates dropped by a third to $3,000 for 10 seconds during the match telecasts. Marketers don’t want to take the risk of putting all their eggs in the cricket basket anymore.

Football

Football in India was spread during the days of the British Empire. Mohun Bagan Athletic Club was set up in what is now West Bengal and is considered the oldest football club in Asia. The club achieved a famous victory over the mighty British York regiment. The national team also had brief spells of glory in the international level when they qualified for the world cup and finished fourth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
However, football was not able to develop over the years. But, the popularity of the sport in terms of viewership has seen a huge boost with the broadcasting of English Premier League and major football competitions like the Euro Cup and the World Cup. This has however not translated into increase in viewership of the domestic league, owing largely to the poor quality of football played.
The emergence of football leagues in Japan and the USA can be emulated in India if proper planning is put into action. Both the countries have fought against competition from more popular sports in their countries and made their respective leagues a success. This can be replicated in India by capitalizing on the recent positive developments like the birth of sponsors-backed city based clubs like Mumbai FC, Pune FC and New Delhi heroes. The launch of football academies like the PIFA aimed at nurturing the youth talent is sure to help the sport’s cause in the long-run.

Hockey

Hockey became popular in India when the British Regiments played the game in India and introduced it in the British India Regiments who quickly picked up the game. The first hockey club was formed in Calcutta in 1885-86 followed by Bombay and Punjab.

The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) is the central administrative body for the game of hockey in India. The IHF seeks to promote, encourage and develop the game of hockey in India and holds a number of inter-member tournaments and National Championship Tournaments. But over the years hockey as sport has lost its glory because of many reasons and it is reflected in the poor performance our hockey teams. At a time when sport needs to put its best foot forward to attract sport, Indian hockey is invisible on television.

Amidst all this monotony lies a silver lining in PHL- premier hockey league. It is a Kerry Packer-style attempt to resuscitate a game that has for long been overshadowed by the national obsession with cricket. Besides the increase in prize money, there are several firsts associated with the PHL: A television-friendly playing format, designer uniforms, foreign players and even a theme song.

Inspite of the initial hype PHL has not been able to generate the expected steam in the sport of hockey in this research paper we analyze the reasons why PHL has not been a great success story and how it can be modified to suit the game of hockey and also bring glamour, money and interest into the game.

Motorsports

Once upon a time in India, the only motor sports were one off races of the rich and famous who could spend to the tune of crores for their passion. Today just the mention of Ferrari brings a gleam to the eye of thousands of F1 enthusiasts around the country.

In 1993 JK Tyre decided to invest 25% of their advertising budget into motor sports. 50% of this went in developing infrastructure like constructing tracks and academies. The rest went towards drivers, cars and other equipment. Till date JK Tyre remains the only company in India to invest in the infrastructure of the sport.

Racing is a crowd puller since people can sit in a stadium and root for their favorite driver and go home satisfied after seeing the champion crossing the finish line. Keeping this in mind, in 1997 JK started the National Racing Championship. The next stage was bringing the sport within reach of the people – karting. The first issue which karting addressed on its way to popularity was affordability. Rs.100 was all you needed to be a part of this revolutionary sport. The popularity spread with the increasing accessibility due to tracks opening in almost every city. The final reason for karting becoming popular was career opportunity. The National karting champiom was adopted by JK Tyre to participate in the National Racing Championship. If he won, he would be part of the Asian GP and so on. A living example is Narain Karthikeyan. A JK Tyre protégé, Narain moved up the levels from karting to finally reach the place where dreams are made – F1.

The icing on the cake is undoubtedly the reports of F1 coming to India. The Delhi government along with Dr. Vijay Mallya is showing keen interest in the issue and the day doesn’t seem far away when the likes of Kimi Raikonnen and Fernando Alonso will burn Indian tracks.

And finally…

Everyone agrees that the gap needs to be filled by alternate sports. But no one seems to have an idea on what that sport or sports can do that. Could it be one of Motor Sport, Football or Hockey or will it take more than one sport to fill the void? Is there any other sport that can capture such a large nation’s fancy single handedly? This panel wants to address these questions at the forefront.

Beyond exploring various sports as opportunities for marketers and broadcasters, the panel also wants to explore the ways in which these sports can be developed. It seeks to chart out a path for a new sport to develop in a country like India so that it can emerge from the shadows of a religion like Cricket and hold its own with a loyal set of followers.

And beyond this, we want to question some of the major stakeholders – the marketers, about their interests in building an alternate sport. We want to know whether their investments in non-cricketing sports are justified in terms of returns? And how does one quantify returns in any case? Is there an international model that can be replicated in India or is there a need for a totally new model for the marketing of sports in the country? What dynamics could facilitate or play spoilsport in the resurrection of non-cricketing sports in the country?

Through this discussion, we thus want to go down to the grass root of developing a sport in India in terms of infrastructure requirements, player selections, training etc. and build it up through promotions, through marketing, through popularizing to develop a sport/ sports that “fill the gap”.