Indian serves an ace with IPL cricket-style tennis league
View(s):It’s a shame Colombo does not have a venue capable of seating at least 5,000 fans at a tennis match. For if it did, perhaps the Sri Lanka Tennis Association might have been able to entice the organisers of the new International Premier Tennis League to look at the city as a possible stopover.
The International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) is the brainchild of former Indian doubles specialist Mahesh Bhupathi who along with Boris Becker and Carlos Moya, two former stars, have come up with the novel idea of serving instant tennis tailor-made for television.
In fact, fans will just be an accessory and serve as a prop of Bhupathi’s plan to sign up a multi-million dollar deal with a major television broadcaster bears fruit. Profits from this enterprise will not come from ticket revenue, but rather television rights.
Yet, styled on cricket’s Indian Premier League, fans will be a welcome adornment, just like jewellery on a woman – it will make the whole product, well, more wholesome.
If cricket can have an IPL, why not tennis, is Bhupathi’s reasoning. Already hockey has followed in cricket’s footsteps and this year we saw the inaugural Hero Hockey Indian League get off to a successful start.
The world’s best players were auctioned and represented five franchises. Australia’s Jamie Dwyer, an Olympic gold medallist and two-time World Player of the Year, in an interview, had nothing but praise for the Hockey Indian League – and why not, especially if it provides a massive stream of income to a player.
Athletes have a limited shelf life and as such welcome any opportunity to make more money. Just ask all our cricketers involved in the IPL.
It is this carrot which Bhupathi has dangled in front of the world’s top tennis stars and they have all responded positively to his idea of a cricket-style tennis league.
They might make millions of dollars, but everyone from French Open champions Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams has given the thumbs up for the IPTL. Others who have come on board are world number one Novak Djokovic, US Open and London Olympics golf medal champion Andy Murray, and retired grand slam champions Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Among the women, Williams, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka are the headline acts.
Jamie Dwyer,
So how does the IPTL work? Bhupathi has targeted its start for November-December, 2014, when both the ATP and WTA seasons are over leaving a free calendar. In the past, the players complained that there was too many tennis and that the schedule should be cut back. Funnily, there was no noise on this front when the schedule was announced. This is the power of money.
In its first year, organisers are planning for six franchises based in six different cities across Asia. Hong Kong is targeted as one, with other cities under consideration including Tokyo, Singapore, Jakarta, manila, Bangalore or Calcutta, Doha and Dubai.
The minimum franchise fee is US$12 million spread over 10 years with organisers promising that 85 per cent of the revenue generated by the IPTL, mainly from television rights and sponsorship, would be shared by team owners.
There is huge money in television and Bhupathi is hoping to strike gold. The IPL which was formed in 2008, has an existing 10-year broadcasting rights deal worth US$1.6 billion with Sony TV (this deal was hammered out by a former Hong Kong Cricket Club cricketer Seamus O’Brien whose World Sports Group was a key partner).
Bhupathi said talks were ongoing with TV broadcasters and he was confident of striking a lucrative deal, especially with the backing of the world’s top players.
“The players are all committed, for the money will be good. We will be playing this tournament during the off-season, and we have got the backing from both the ATP as well as the WTA. This will be serious tennis, and not an exhibition,” Bhupathi said.
The format is simple. The six franchises will field teams comprising men and women as well as past legends, which will play round-robin home-and-away matches in ite first year. Teams will compete in men’s and women’s singles, men’s and mixed doubles and a men’s legends singles – one set per match, with no advantage scoring. The top four teams will then enter the play-offs. The competition is slated for November 28-December 21, 2014.
An entire match – all five clashes – is expected tolast three hours and the brevity is just perfect for television.
The six franchises will bid for players at an auction that will take place in Melbourne around the time of next year’s Australian Open. Each team can have between six to 10 players and the maximum budget for a team will be US$10 million per season.The franchises can be owned by anyone. So anyone in Colombo with US$10 million in change, and who loves to serve and volley, can put forward his or her name.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a locally based owner, although that will help in the logistics,” Bhupathi said.
A full 100 per cent of revenues generated by team owners from hospitality and concessions and ticketing will remain with the owners. A shame Colombo does not have a venue capable of hosting such an event. Just imagine Nadal and Sharapova turning up on the clay courts of Colombo, and the parties and social scene around such an event. Instead of strawberries and cream, we could have fruit salad and ice cream. Yummy.
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