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BBC Inside Sport looks at IPL


Sachinism

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9fv94z.jpg Theres some interesting points being made, not sure how much of it is true Jonathan Agnew goes to Chennai to get more information on the IPL He claims that in one Delhi game only 5000 tickets were sold and the rest (20000) had to be given away so the crowd would get packed out and that journalists are not allowed to write anything bad about the IPL or they will have their accreditation taken away from them. It also covers England's situation http://www.sendspace.com/file/fsxtsp (I know its the wrong section, could it stay here for a while, so we could discuss some of the points made
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He claims that in one Delhi game only 5000 tickets were sold and the rest (20000) had to be given away so the crowd would get packed out
That rumour has been around quite a lot but haven't seen much written about it. Perhaps Hari or someone else with inside info would know can confirm it one way or the other. There was an early interview with SRK where he lamented that only 137 tickets were sold on the first day for Kolkata. But Eden Gardens had 50K+ crowd for every match. Perhaps there is some connection between the accusation and this.
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Guest HariSampath
I brother paid a lot of money to get in for a couple of games.
Do you know that in Chepauk, out of a capacity of 65,000 the number of complimentary tkts for IPL games is 20,000 ? And it is completely true that there is not much spectator interest at the ground ( as in ODIs) . On an average I find that nearly 7 out of 10 people I know who are regulars for all Chepauk international games are not at all interested in IPL games. Thats a very big percentage. I found that most of those who did want to go are ppl whose kids wanted to see Dhoni, Murali and other international players in the staudium . A measure of popular support can be had by the number of ppl who turn up to see the team at training sessions . Even for this there are not many people at the ground. Usually when India play Aus or something at Chepauk, it will be as difficult to get in on day before game and the entry used to be regulated and restricted to 2 stands which would be full. There is nothing of the sort so far in IPL. At the end of the day, I think the India Vs someone factor being missing here, does play a big part in IPL no attracting the serious fans. By this I dont mean just traditional test fans, but also ODI and T20 fans. If there was a T20 involving India , I would probably make diabolical plans far ahead to ensure I get a pass, but now even with game passes quite easily available, I am somehow unable to drag myself to the game and prefer to catch up on TV.
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That really sucks, that hardly any people are attending the matches If I had the opportunity I would be there at most matches, you dont get an opportunity too often to see so many superstars play in a single game and also you get to see the new talent. Among my friends and family here in London every cricket fan is following IPL pretty closely. So is the hype created around it, a fake hype/buzz? Its a 4 hour event (max.) so its not like people dont have time, is there really very little interest in IPL?

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Guest HariSampath

Most games start at 8 PM on weekdays Folks hardly would be getting off work and the IPL games are not that important to take a day off from work. The only kind of folks who would want to attend is the younger people who form 'office groups' and have a bash, but even that is not much at least in Chennai; no liquor no smoking etc in almost all stands, and those stands that are providing these cost Rs 5000 per tkt , which is way overpriced and youger professionals would get many times a better value for evening elsewhere. The reality is that there is no great "home town connect" in India ; which explains empty stands for even some terrific FC matches. No one turns up to see tendulkar play in Wankhede or Sehwag in Kotla.Even Tendulkar playing in an FC game in say, Bangalore will not bring in more than 1000 people and FC cricket is almost totally dead. In addition most people dont know many of the players in their own city teams. Its not even a City11 in the technical sense as there are so many other Indian players and overseas players and even these are not that well known to the ordinary fan. A game every 2 / 3 days brings down the "uniqueness" quotient of the match, as opposed to Pakistan or Australia coming to city to play India in an ODI , which happens probably once in 2 years. Bottom line is no one cares in IPL as the audience is not the one at the ground but the much wider spread TV audience, and the only function of the ground audience is to give that "atmosphere" by filling up the ground, otherwise it will look awful. So franchise owners use the tkts as "gift packages' for employees in their respective companies, send out "100 tkt" packs to special interest groups, tv media and family/friends and all sorts of things , basically its a 'gift-crackers-during-diwali' concept , and almost all spectators are the curious and the idle-on-that-day-it-costs-nothing crowd. less than 20% of the tkts would be really paid for tkts and perhaps only in the categories of Rs 1000 and less

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Hmm now looking at all of this, I dont understand how the franchise owners can continue to keep paying players. Theres talk of players getting bigger pay packets next year. Where is the money coming in from? Media rights? is that the only source?

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Guest HariSampath
Hmm now looking at all of this' date=' I dont understand how the franchise owners can continue to keep paying players. Theres talk of players getting bigger pay packets next year. Where is the money coming in from? Media rights? is that the only source?[/quote'] These are all companies with HUGE turnovers and/or people with enormous amounts of money that they would like to account *diifferently*....personal money pumped into these startup companies of the franchises, the parent corporates holding stakes, profit/losses written off, tax breaks , accounting under advertising, "sports promotions", you name it, its all there, and how would a player budget of $5 mills or even $15 mills make a difference in these times and larger pictures of the corporations ?
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