Manchester United, one of the most widely followed clubs onthis planet was recently valued at $3 Billion. A figure this large makes youwonder about the economics of a club. Many business conglomerates are valued ata lesser figure. There is money in the sport which brings us to the question ofwhy Indian clubs aren’t a profitable venture.
Indian clubs are consortium owned like Dempo SC, Salgaocarand Pune FC, individual owned like Churchill Brothers, mixed ownership likeUnited Sikkim, institutional like ONGC and Air India, Government owned. Whilethere are a few standalone cases, football club owners who deal in billions;the common thread that strings through the rest of these clubs; is that theyare loss making ventures and are as stumped as to how to turn this around.
Any top club across the globe has multiple avenues togenerate revenue like gate sales, tickets to multiple club related functions,merchandising, club loyalty programs, sponsors and what constitutes a majorchunk: Television and Distribution rights. A top European club pays heftysalaries to attract the best talent in players, coaching staff and managementand administration. Despite this, they still run clubs profitably.
On the other hand we see Indian clubs like Mahindra and JCTthat shut down. JCT has produced some of the finest footballers in India yetwhen they got relegated to the 2nd Division, the management decided to shutshop and focus on youth football. Mahindra United, one of India’s mostsuccessful clubs at the time of being disbanded, decided to shut shop since themanagement found the club to be a loss making venture. These 2 notabledepartures from Indian Football quoting financial viability as their reason isan indelible blot.
Even to this day, the existence of a lot of clubs in Indiais under threat since they see no Return on Investment (ROI). To turn thisaround, they need to have a bigger share of the golden goose, television anddistribution rights. Indian Football is set up in a way that clubs receive nopercentage of TV rights and hence lose what could be a major chunk of income.They need to increase fan base by online and offline methods to increase paidsubscriptions to the club’s loyalty program, online channels, mediasubscriptions etc. They also need to indulge fans in a way that gate salesincrease exponentially. In addition to this, having a strong merchandisingpresence across its major fan base is something that earns a club its revenue.
In addition to the above, indulging fans with access toquizzes and trivia resulting in club memorabilia, giving fans access totraining sessions to interact with the players closely gives the fans a senseof belonging and would want to be involved with the club in all possiblemanners.
Over a period of time indulgence of fans and their interestlevels would be high and the club would be in the green. Indian Football woulddo well without a repeat of the Mahindra United and JCT way. Higher clubrevenues will only benefit Indian Football.
