NEW DELHI: Call it the IPL effect. Buying sports teams seems the new hep thing in the world of celebrities. If cricketer Yuvraj Singh is buying a motorsport team, Telugu film star Chiranjeevi's son Ramcharan Tej has bought a polo team, and Hindi superstar Salman Khan, Tamil star Suriya and Malayalam actor Mohanlal are all part of a new celebrity cricket league.
The success of the Indian Premier League, where actors Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta are among the team owners, may be the obvious trigger, but the stars are clearly looking beyond top-level cricket, partly because of heavy investment and lack of opportunities, and partly because of their interest in other sports.
"It's not only very expensive to buy an IPL team, but opportunities are also restricted," says Indranil Das, COO of sports and entertainment marketing firm Kwan Entertainment & Marketing, which manages endorsement deals for actor Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Rana Daggubatti. "There are a lot of proposals on the table and celebrities seem to be keen too - because sport has an emotional connect and gives the owners added visibility as well," he says.
Yuvraj Eyes 1 Super Series Team
Yuvraj Singh and a host of other celebrities, including British business magnate Richard Branson and film star Hrithik Roshan, are expected to be associated with i1 Super Series, a franchisee-based car-racing event being endorsed by master batsman Sachin Tendulkar and promoted by Machdar Motorsports.
Chiranjeevi's son Ramcharan Tej has acquired a Hyderabad-based nationallevel polo team a fortnight ago for an estimated 3-4 crore. He says there is a big opportunity to make Hyderabad the home ground for Royal Polo Games, and reviving the sport. "People here are aware of the big brands associated with polo and they have huge spending power - this is the new place for luxury brands to showcase themselves," Tej says. He clearly expects good returns on his investment. His association has already helped the team bring in sponsors such as the Apollo Group, Tej says.
RACING CLUBS
Machdar Motorsports CEO Darshan M has confirmed that Yuvraj Singh is in talks to buy a franchisee team of i1 Super Series. "Yuvraj is interested in the league but nothing has been finalised yet," he says. Partly modelled on IPL, the soon-to-belaunched motor sports league will have nine teams, each representing a city, and each team will have two cars in the race, driven by an Indian and a foreigner.
But unlike IPL, the motor sport teams would not be auctioned. The nine franchises will be sold, by invitation, at a base price of $5 million.
The success of the Indian Premier League, where actors Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta are among the team owners, may be the obvious trigger, but the stars are clearly looking beyond top-level cricket, partly because of heavy investment and lack of opportunities, and partly because of their interest in other sports.
"It's not only very expensive to buy an IPL team, but opportunities are also restricted," says Indranil Das, COO of sports and entertainment marketing firm Kwan Entertainment & Marketing, which manages endorsement deals for actor Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Rana Daggubatti. "There are a lot of proposals on the table and celebrities seem to be keen too - because sport has an emotional connect and gives the owners added visibility as well," he says.
Yuvraj Eyes 1 Super Series Team
Yuvraj Singh and a host of other celebrities, including British business magnate Richard Branson and film star Hrithik Roshan, are expected to be associated with i1 Super Series, a franchisee-based car-racing event being endorsed by master batsman Sachin Tendulkar and promoted by Machdar Motorsports.
Chiranjeevi's son Ramcharan Tej has acquired a Hyderabad-based nationallevel polo team a fortnight ago for an estimated 3-4 crore. He says there is a big opportunity to make Hyderabad the home ground for Royal Polo Games, and reviving the sport. "People here are aware of the big brands associated with polo and they have huge spending power - this is the new place for luxury brands to showcase themselves," Tej says. He clearly expects good returns on his investment. His association has already helped the team bring in sponsors such as the Apollo Group, Tej says.
RACING CLUBS
Machdar Motorsports CEO Darshan M has confirmed that Yuvraj Singh is in talks to buy a franchisee team of i1 Super Series. "Yuvraj is interested in the league but nothing has been finalised yet," he says. Partly modelled on IPL, the soon-to-belaunched motor sports league will have nine teams, each representing a city, and each team will have two cars in the race, driven by an Indian and a foreigner.
But unlike IPL, the motor sport teams would not be auctioned. The nine franchises will be sold, by invitation, at a base price of $5 million.
Teams will also have to pay an annual fee of $1 million from the second year. IPL is a lot costlier. Shah Rukh had bought the Kolkata team for $75.09 million, while Subrata Roy's Sahara Group coughed up $370 million for Pune Warriors. The race will tour across seven Asian cities including Delhi, Chennai, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Pattaya. The total prize money is $2 million. A person familiar with the negotiations says the deal with Yuvraj is expected to be formalised in two weeks. An email sent to the cricketer's manager remained unanswered till the time of going to print.
The person also says British business magnate and Virgin Group promoter Richard Branson too is in talks to buy the Bangalore team in this league. Film stars Hrithik Roshan, Fardeen Khan and Sanjay Khan, besides corporates, like the Hero Group and the Burmans of the Dabur Group, too have held talks with the league owners. Darshan would not confirm this. "We are in talks with several sports and film stars, and corporate houses, but we can't reveal the names at this point," he says. The team owners and the broadcast partner will be announced over the next few weeks as the first race is scheduled for December, Darshan says.
FIGHT AGAINST PIRACY
The returns need not be direct. The film fraternity across the country - Bollywood, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bangla and Malayalam - have come together to form the Celebrity Cricket League that will combat piracy. The stars involved include Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Suniel Shetty, Suriya, Madhavan, Venkatesh Suniel and Mohanlal.
The first season of the league, founded by Vishnu Vardhan Induri, MD and CEO of Local TV and founder and CEO at Bharatstudent.com, was to raise awareness on piracy and ways to combat it. The Indian entertainment industry is estimated to have lost over 4,000 crore and 6,00,000 jobs due to piracy last year. The first edition of the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) was held in Hyderabad in June this year with four teams - Mumbai Heroes, Chennai Rhinos, Telugu Warriors and Karnataka Bulldozers. Chennai Rhinos beat Karnataka Bulldozers to win the title.
Sahara network has the broadcast rights for the matches. Last month, CCL announced the launch of Bangla and Malayalam teams too. While Malayalam superstar Mohanlal and director Priyadarshan's wife Lissy are owners of the Malayalam cricket team, Sridevi's husband Boney Kapoor owns the Bangla team.
Source: Economic Times
