Hockey India League to return in a new avatar with lower costs, fewer venues

New Delhi: The Hockey India League (HIL) is returning in the 2024-25 season after a seven-year break, but with scaled-down ambitions and lower costs as the organizers look to build a sustainable event riding on India’s recent successes.

The upcoming edition will feature eight men’s and six women’s teams, with separate leagues for the first time. The first match will be held on 28 December and the event will conclude around February, according to details disclosed on Thursday. Hockey India said it will focus on developing talent in both men’s and women’s sport.

“The IPL has given us a good model and this will also have the format of a central pool,” Dilip Tirkey, former India captain and president of Hockey India, told Mint, referring to income from like television rights and title sponsorships. “Out of that central pool, we will provide a part of the proceeds to the franchises.” 

To be sure, the earlier version of the league also had a similar pool but the revenue was not enough to cover high costs. Earlier editions had multiple venues, which increased the cost. Also, there was no dedicated window, and a packed international calendar meant unavailability of top players

“Unlike last time, we are not aiming very high, and we are going to make sure no trouble is caused to the franchise teams so the leagues remains sustainable,” said Tirkey. “We have also decided we will only stick to two venues–Rourkela and Ranchi. If we have to sustain the league in the long run, we need to reduce the expenses of the franchises.” 

Support for Indian hockey has grown after the men’s team won two bronze medals in the last two Olympics, and the women’s national squad’s global rankings also improved after competitive performances. Yet, in its first avatar, high operational costs were a significant burden, with substantial expenses for player salaries, travel, accommodation, and training facilities. Limited sponsorship revenue exacerbated the situation as field hockey did not attract sponsors at the same scale as sports like cricket, which its income. 

Also read | Raamdeo Agrawal on how to generate hockey stick returns

Lower broadcast revenue was another issue. Compared to more popular leagues, the HIL generated less from broadcasting rights due to lower viewership. While two franchise owners — Jaypee Group and Wave Group had their own issues and decided to exit — Sahara Group, which owned two teams in the league, also wanted to focus on only one. As many franchises struggled to break even, ultimately, the league was suspended in 2017 despite initial success in drawing attention to Indian hockey and providing a platform for domestic players to compete alongside international talent.

“The (new) league will invite an investment of a few hundred crores. We should be able to finalize those details in the next two weeks,” said Tirkey. “There will be an auction between 13 and 15 October. The men’s franchise fee will be around ₹7 crore and women’s teams will invite a franchise fee of ₹3 crore per year, for a 10-year period.” Hockey India did not publicly disclose the franchise fee for the earlier version. 

“There is no doubt that hockey has a perception problem in the country but Indians do have an emotional attachment to it. On the other hand, cricket has proved commercially more viable,” Tirkey said. “Hockey needs to also work commercially, and this is time we will be able to monetise it better, even though we’ve lost thirty years in the process.” 

Also read | FanCode to stream FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup in India

In 1983 when the Indian cricket team won the World Cup, it was print and electronic media that popularlized the sport further, according to him. “We now are in the same position with hockey.”

One of the key issues the last time was the withdrawal of Jaypee Group, which owned and funded the Punjab Warriors team. Hero had pulled out as sponsor. 

“Having a better business model and hockey ecosystem will ultimately help us get a gold at the Olympics,” Tirkey said. “We’ve had two consecutive bronze medals at the Olympics and with a women’s team we will have an ecosystem that will lead us to a potential victory there as well.”

This time, the league also has new owners. Tamil Nadu’s The Charles group will run the Chennai men’s team. Yadu Sports will own the men’s Lucknow team. JSW Sports will operate the men’s and women’s team ‘Punjab & Haryana’. While Shrachi Sports has the Kolkata men’s and women’s team, tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi-led SG Sports and Entertainment will own the Delhi teams. Vedanta Ltd has the franchises for Odisha’s men’s team, while Resolute Sports has the Hyderabad men’s team. Navoyam Sports Ventures will own the Ranchi men’s and Odisha women’s team.

Many of the owners in the previous league unfortunately faced problems, some of which were of their own making, said Ravneet Gill, former CEO of Deutsche Bank India and Yes Bank, who co-founded Big Bang Media Ventures, the commercial rights marketing partner of the league.

“We need the league to be financially viable and today a lot of the monetization in sport has now actually moved to content and social media,” he said. “We can’t keep depending on television only to monetize the sport, so we will explore this option this time around to make for a better financial model.”

And read | International Hockey Federation signs JSW as global World Cup partner

Catch all theBusiness News, Sports News,Breaking NewsEvents andLatest News Updates on Live Mint. Download TheMint News App to get Daily Market Updates

MoreLess



_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}