THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of Indian Super League franchise Mumbai City FC has come a long way since working for Mahesh Bhupathi’s Globosport back in 2004. Today, INDRANIL DAS BLAH dons many hats aside from that of founding partner and co-CEO of KWAN, the sports and talent management company that manages the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, Dipika Pallikal, Sania Mirza and Shubman Gill, amongst top Indian sporting stars.
One of the bigger hats Blah wears of course is as the man directing the show at Mumbai City FC, owned by Hindi film star Ranbir Kapoor.
Excerpts from an interview with SportzPower’s Dhruv Rupani on what it takes to run a successful football franchise in India.
How will Mumbai City FC go about its marketing and promotional campaigns this season?
We wish to focus more on the digital as we have a strong social media presence. We will continue to use #BoleToh MCFC and other popular hashtags and will be launching our official marketing campaign in the next two weeks. Vernacular languages merging with a colloquial style is what fans will get to see this season.
We have also partnered with Radio City 91.1 once again for all our promotional campaigns on radio, since that is the traditional form of advertising that works best for us. Print media has proven to be an expensive proposition for us and we have found that outdoor advertising on billboards and public transport across the city of Mumbai and its suburbs to be extremely effective.
What is the degree of importance that the club gives to video and data analytics? How has the club progressed on that front?
It has varied from season to season depending on the coach and how much he wishes to use it himself or would encourage the players to do so. We struggled with it in the first two seasons, but consciously spent much more on it in Seasons 3 and 4 since it can be a great aid to gain a competitive edge. As a result, we have become better at it. A stable technical staff with few additions in it every year helps.
What are the factors that make Mumbai City FC an attractive proposition for sponsors?
Firstly, it would have to be location. Mumbai ensures that we have a massive reach towards the masses and not just the classes, besides an extremely loyal fan following.
When a club like ours has someone like Ranbir Kapoor as the principal owner, his star power is a huge asset for us and a hit amongst sponsors. In 2017, we reached our highest sponsorship value and ensured that we continue to be in the top 3 amongst all ISL teams that can attract the maximum sponsors and revenue from it.
In this regard, Chennaiyin FC are blessed with the presence of MS Dhoni and Abhishek Bachchan. Alongside Kerala Blasters, it has an exceptional football-crazy market. These two teams give us tough competition in the context of sponsorship. This season, we are confident of attracting more sponsors after the reception FIFA World Cup 2018 got from India that has made corporates look at football more seriously than before.
Talking about revenue, one of the major factors that a franchise looks to earn from is gate receipts. How has Mumbai City FC performed in that regard across the five seasons so far?
For the first two years, we were based out of the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai which had an impressive capacity of 45,000. However, we could only manage to fill less than half the stadium with 15,000-20,000 people attending the matches on average. As a result, it was becoming an expensive proposition for us. However, since we shifted to the Mumbai Football Arena in the populated suburban area of Andheri, it has fulfilled our objective of being closer to fans than ever before.
The chances of the matches getting sold out are much higher now. In a stadium that has been revamped impressively and having a capacity of 9,500, 5,000 tickets are guaranteed to be purchased on an average at every game. 30-40% of the tickets are given on a complementary basis to fan clubs, VIPs and sponsors for example.
However, it is more essential for us to spread the game of football and make it accessible to youngsters. We have aimed to get more students to the ground with our tickets often priced for them between Rs 100 to Rs 150. Their presence makes us extremely satisfied.
Overall though, we expect to gain anywhere between Rs 12.5 and Rs 15 million this season from ticketing.
How does the club manage to stay relevant during the off season?
It has been a major challenge for us since most of our players and coaches aren’t available due to other commitments such as international football. One of the disadvantages of having a season lasting for less than half a year is to keep ourselves fresh in the minds of our sponsors. So we take the off season as an opportunity to enhance our grassroots initiatives by conducting coaching camps across the city and participating in football fests. We have teams competing in the U-13, U-15 and U-18 categories.
It has been a huge success as we have been recognised for having the best grassroots program amongst all ISL teams for the first three seasons. In the third season, we had as many as 200 children participating in it. As part of our succession plan, we focus on the development of the U-18 team in such a way that young Indian talents get an opportunity to play for the first team in the ISL within a period of two years.
For the first time, we sent our players to Thailand for a pre-season tour recently for extensive preparation, an understanding of different cultures and the players and coaches bonding with each other.
What is the extent of Ranbir Kapoor’s involvement in the team? Has the club brought any other investors on board this time?
Besides being a favourite amongst marketers for being such a huge Bollywood star, it is ironical as well as impressive that Ranbir is more of a behind-the-scenes person. One can sometimes get the impression that he isn’t as actively involved in the team as say SRK for KKR in the IPL, but he is extremely invested in the team financially and emotionally.
His philosophy is that despite being the principal owner, he trusts our team to make all decisions that are in the best interests of the club although he will have his suggestions from time to time. His passion for football is only second to acting as he himself enjoys playing it when he has free time. As a result, you will be seeing him watching more games in Mumbai this season as he is confident of managing a hectic work schedule.
When it comes to investors, we will continue to have Ranbir as well as Bimal Parekh on board.
ISL franchises have consistently reported losses as operational costs are estimated to be between Rs 400 million and Rs 500 million each season. Has Mumbai City FC managed to reduce that margin each year? What is your expectation this year from internal accruals and how much will be coming in from the central revenue pool?
Yes, we have managed to bring down losses each season by 20%. In fact, we have cut 75% of costs this season by providing our players, coaches and support staff with accommodation in Navi Mumbai.
But we also have to be realistic when it comes to losses. Although they are the biggest challenge when it comes to running a sports franchise, but more so as it is a part and parcel of it initially.
For that matter, KKR became the first team in the IPL to record profits consistently only after the sixth season while the others could do so only this year, which was the 11th edition of the tournament.
So we expect to break even anywhere between the 8th and the 10th season, which is still a long way to go. The support of the owners has been fantastic for the club to be motivated enough and work for developing football in the city and the country.
When JSW acquired a 50% stake at Delhi Daredevils this year at a valuation of Rs 11 billion, it also provided a clear indicator of actual value of IPL teams currently, which brings us to the question of valuation of ISL teams. Do you have any comments to offer there?
At present, valuing ISL teams is an extremely difficult task. It will only be mere speculation and to a slight extent, market dynamics to predict that. It won’t come as a surprise if any team manages to reach the Rs 1 billion mark within the next two seasons considering that franchises such as ATK had Atletico Madrid on board and GMS had picked up a majority stake in Delhi Dynamos in 2016.
Major corporate houses are surely showing greater interest in investing in football teams more than ever before.