Are LPL franchise owners getting return on investment?
Franchise owners shelled out sums ranging from $1m to $1.5m to own and manage teams at the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL). But what is their return on investment after dumping such astronomical sums on a completely new venture?
Many agree that the franchises will not make profits this year – or even for the next couple of years -just as it had been for the franchise owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL) who took several years to see returns. But there is optimism that the LPL will reap dividends in the future. The Sunday Times contacted all five franchises to ask what made them dole out funds at a challenging time but only the Jaffna Stallions and Dambulla Vikings responded.
Jaffna Stallions are owned by a consortium of Sri Lankans and Indians from around the world including Australia, Canada, France, United Kingdom, and the USA. They say they were driven by passion for the game and a keen interest to develop it in the Jaffna region.
“Commencing an inaugural tournament during the global uncertainty of a pandemic is a feat in itself,” said Anandan Arnold, the CEO and Co-Founder of the franchise. “Our consortium is optimistic for the future as travel opens, fans walk through the gates of stadiums and normalcy slowly returns. Our outlook is long term, and goals are not purely business as we want to elevate cricket in North and rural parts of Sri Lanka.”
Anandan also credited the organisers with putting up an excellent job in unveiling a successful tournament “which has been entertaining for fans and valuable for emerging cricketers in Sri Lanka”. The Stallions, led by Thisara Perera, included three players from the Jaffna district with leg-spinner Vijayakanth Viyaskanth making his debut for the team.
Sachin Joshi – the owner of Viiking Ventures – was the last to join the league, buying Dambulla. He, too, sees long term prospects.
“I think in a few years it will be a profitable venture,” Joshi said, when asked what made him invest. “As we always say in business, ‘You invest, you wait for the gestation period before you make profits out of it’. Maybe with the pandemic it’s not a great time but I see a future in this for cricket to grow in the country.”
Joshi, who is also the owner of the Celebrity Cricket League team Telugu Warriors in India admits he hasn’t closed all their bills this year with sponsorships hard to come by.
“We should be able to break it within the second or third year,” he said, optimistically. “We will try for the second. But hopefully it looks like we will break even in the third year. The tournament is interesting. We have seen many leagues around the world which support the younger talent as it grows by the day. But we will see in the long term how we grow in cricket and the sporting business.” Colombo Kings was owned by Dubai based businessman Murfad Mustafa but his franchise along with Galle Gladiators owned by Nadeem Omar–a Pakistan businessman and Kandy Tuskers which only had 20 percent of ownership vested with Indian actor Sohail Khan and Abbas Muni did not respond to our queries.