Domestic Twenty20 and GDP
Twenty20 domestic competitions in several of the leading cricket countries are contributing to their GDP
LAHORE: The first-ever Pakistan Super League (PSL) concluded on Tuesday at the fully sold-out Dubai International Cricket Stadium with high financial hopes for the Pakistan Cricket Board, the five franchises involved, advertisers and all other stake-holders in the business. Looking at the massive public response and other economic indicators, one can easily deduce that the PSL certainly has a bright financial future ahead, especially if one analyses the popularity levels and the more recent pecuniary performances of the contemporary Indian Premier League, the Australian Big Bash, the Caribbean Premier League and the Bangladesh Premier League etc and compare them with the PSL, which is still in its infancy.
The 24-match league PSL had seen 69 local and 29 foreign stars playing for five teams, which were sold for a total of $93 million for 10 years.
No more a pipe dream, the PSL has already succeeded in attracting packed-to-capacity UAE stadiums, and if the PSL Chief Najam Sethi's projections prove true in near future, the franchises would start earning handsomely from the third Pakistan Super League edition onwards. With a broadcasting deal value of $15 million, the PSL has the potential to start contributing handsomely to the
country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if the event is somehow staged at the much larger Pakistani stadiums, but for the time being, the law and order situation in Pakistan is a massive hurdle. When it comes to team auctions, the PSL has not done badly at all.
At the IPL, where the involvement of money is much higher than the PSL, the first-ever team auction in 2008 had fetched $723.5 million or an average of $90.45 million per team.
The PSL per team average rests at $18.6 million. The first-ever team auction at the Bangladesh Premier League had fetched just $6 49 million or an average of $1.08 million per team.
Similarly, the first-ever team auction at the Sri Lankan Premier League had fetched just $30.15 million or an average of $4.3 million per team for a period of seven years.
Played at larger grounds, the 2015 Indian Premier League (IPL) had contributed Rs11.5 billion ($182 million) to India’s GDP, the October 30, 2015 edition of "The Hindu" had reported while quoting the Board of Control for Cricket in India spokesman.
The IPL 2015 had consisted of eight franchises that played 60 matches over 44 days in 13 host venues of 12 cities across the country. As many as 193 cricketers took part in the tournament that had attracted 1.71 million spectators at the Indian venues.
Quoting the BCCI, "The Hindu" had stated: " The total economic output associated with IPL matches in India for 2015 is estimated at INR26.5 billion (US$418 million). This is the aggregate value of all transactions that took place as a direct, indirect or induced effect of the economic activity of the 2015 matches. Hosting an IPL match also adds value and revenue to the economy of the state. The 2015 season, saw around 20 percent of attendees visiting from cities other than the host city. Also notable were international visitors primarily from the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa."
Big Bash, the Australian domestic Twenty20 cricket tournament, had recorded a total attendance of 1,030,495 (29,443 per match) for its 35 fixtures. The 2015–16 Big Bash League season (December 17, 2015 to January 24, 2016) was the fifth edition of this tournament, which is gaining popularity with every passing year.
Before the start of the 2015-16 Big Bash season, a few prestigious Australian media outlets had predicted that all eight Big Bash League franchises were set to record profits this season, with Cricket Australia budgeting for an aggregate profit of about $4 million across the competition.
The profit forecasts had taken into account ticket presales, membership and sponsorship income. Cricket Australia's head of BBL Anthony Everard had said in December 2015 that the membership numbers for the eight teams, spread across the six cricket states and with two teams in each of Melbourne and Sydney, were about 10 per cent ahead of last year's number, having topped the 30,000 mark.
The 2015–16 season attracted an average audience of 1.13 million for each match in Australia this season, an 18 per cent increase on the previous season. A cumulative audience of 9.65 million people had watched the matches in Australia, out of which 39 per cent were females.
The January 22, 2016 edition of the "Forbes" had stated: " The average attendance in the BBL has risen to 28,346 this season, up 22 per cent from this time last year – and seven of the eight clubs have already broken their domestic cricket attendance records. Moreover, TV ratings are up 11 per cent as well, with more than one million people watching each game, and merchandise sales have increased by an impressive 44 per cent over 2014-15!"
The January 11, 2016 edition of the "Sydney Morning Herald" had added: "The Big Bash League has burst into the top 10 most attended sports leagues in the world." The Big Bash coverage has become a regular feature of Australian summers and had attracted an average audience of more than 943,000 people nationally in 2014–15 season, including a peak audience of 1.9 million viewers for the final between the Scorchers and Sixers.
Quoting the Australian players' chief Greg Dyer, the January 12, 2016 edition of the "Sydney Morning Herald" had noted: "Cricket Australia should revisit the concept of privatising the Big Bash League and use the cash windfall to invest in the future of the "main game" - Test and first-class cricket.
Cricket Australia had explored a private ownership model before the competition was set up in its present guise in 2011, with the eight franchises valued at $50 million each and various suitors in India said to be prepared to pay $26million for a 49 per cent stake. Later, a consortium involving Sydney-based businessman Darshak Mehta was willing to stump up $5m for a 49 per cent share in the Sydney Sixers but learnt that was well short of the asking price. Coming to the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in the West Indies, organisers are hoping it would soon run into profits too.
The July 30, 2015 report of the "ESPNscricinfo" had maintained: "The 2015 Caribbean Premier League offered a delightful dream in contrast to the never-ending nightmare that has been the plight of the West Indies cricket fan over the last two decades. Capacity crowds were riveted by close finishes as the game was invigorated by this year's tournament - as it has been in the first two editions of the competition. The CPL is the hottest ticket the region has seen for some time. Scalpers were openly selling tickets for the final outside the Queen's Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain for a minimum of US$300, and tickets for the two qualifiers before that weren't much cheaper."
It had further stated: "The CPL is not owned or run by the West Indies Cricket Board. A group backed by the Irish-owned Caribbean mobile network Digicel pays an undisclosed annual stipend, understood to be no more than a few million dollars, to the board for the rights to stage the event and earn revenues from it."
The 2015 CPL trophy was lifted by the Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel, a franchise that was later acquired by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.
The CPL is now broadcast in 15 countries and is available to 208 million homes. The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), has the third highest average attendance among all cricket leagues with respect to the average crowd per match during 2015 season.
In 2016, BPL was revealed as the second most followed cricket league in the world, second to the IPL. The brand valuation of BPL is estimated around $500 million.
