MUMBAI: U Sports, the sports company owned by Indian media tycoon Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures, is bullish on making a positive impact on India’s ‘heartbeat sports’.
Five years after purchasing the ownership rights for the Mumbai franchise of the Pro Kabaddi League, the company is representing the city in the ongoing Pro Volleyball League. Towards the second half of the year, don’t be surprised to see U Sports venturing into the I-League (or whatever new nomenclature it is marked with) in the 2019-20 season in the form of U Mumba FC.
The company co-founder and CEO Supratik Sen told SportzPower in an exclusive interaction about U Sports being in constant touch with top officials in the AIFF such as president Praful Patel, general secretary Kushal Das, Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) President Aditya Thackeray and the Western India Football Association (WIFA) CEO Henry Menezes, who have been nothing but supportive of Mumbai getting adequate representation in the I-League again.
The MDFA has permitted U Sports to use its official training facility in a popular suburban area of the city. Sen claims that the company’s push towards working on grassroots football as an integral part of its plan to create a full-fledged team, accelerated in 2016 when its ‘U Dream Football Academy’ joined hands with Tata Trusts and Bundesliga heavyweights Borussia Dortmund for grooming young Indian talent in the country as well as European nations.
Although the partnership ended in September 2018, U Sports has made the most of the opportunity to become independent in its functioning. The co-founder cited the example of some of the talents unearthed in its three Centres of Excellence in Aizawl, Imphal and Chandigarh to understand the importance of nutrition, an aspect which convinced him of the Indian youth having the physical and mental makeup to match and even better their European counterparts. Rest assured, it will be a subject of intense focus with U Mumba FC as well.
Simultaneously, the club has participated in MDFA and WIFA competitions off late to establish its presence in the city’s football circuit. The overall investment in grassroots development comes to Rs 150 million so far.
Sen opines that drawing sufficient crowds to the stadium isn’t a concern for U Sports as Mumbai’s football culture and the I-League’s inherent popularity remains intact, despite its on-going controversies. The firm is expected to zero in on the Cooperage in South Mumbai as its home ground with the option open of playing some games in the Mumbai Football Arena (MFA) in the western suburbs. Having a capacity of 10,000, MFA is also the home of Mumbai City FC, the Indian Super League (ISL) franchise.
With all the ingredients in place, the team’s official bid is likely to be finalised in mid-2019. Sen said that the investment for U Mumba FC is estimated to be in the range of Rs 80-100 million till the end of 2020, which is interestingly a similar amount allocated by U Sports for its U Mumba Volley team in the PVL during the same time period.
Although U Sports is expected to increase its losses in the 2019-20 FY, Sen believes that its journey in the Pro Kabaddi League is something it can take heart from as their investment in the first two seasons added up to Rs 100 million as well.
After six seasons, U Mumba has nearly managed to break-even owing to the rising value of the Mashal Sports-owned sporting property and could be profitable by 2020 with the PKL’s media rights being up for re-bidding this year.
