IPL Franchises Struggle To Find Sponsors As Tournament Braces For Return

The 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set for its grand return in the UAE from the 19th of September after undergoing plenty of struggles. While it will not be contested in the country of its origin, the very thought of witnessing slam-bang once again is encouraging news for fans. Nevertheless, it has one more hurdle to cross as most of the lucrative league franchises have lost their main sponsors and searching for a new one.

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The ongoing COVID-19 health crisis due to which the IPL got postponed twice, has also damaged plenty of organisations across the world. The disruption of operations due to periodic lockdown have caused massive losses.

Because of the marketing budges getting compromised, several sponsors took a backseat, resulting in the franchises hunting for new sponsors all over again.

An official of one of the IPL franchises remarked their relief around the IPL beginning again; however, the issue with the sponsors is hurting them. The official added that before the season, they sold 95% of their inventory and presently they are without their sponsors. Other teams have found them in the same boat too.

“Though we are extremely pleased that IPL 2020 has been revived and we will have full-fledged season in UAE, we have issue around the sponsors. Before the IPL was suspended, we had sold almost 95% of our inventory. But now the situation is, we are without our main sponsors. I have been talking to other teams as well and they also are in the same boat,” the representative stated as quoted by Times Now.

It will be difficult to find sponsors at the same values on which we had earlier signed our deals: CEO of an IPL franchise

A CEO of one of the teams stated that since the extravaganza is taking place in a different cycle altogether, they face an issue. For the winter, a different set of sponsors work and during summer, some others do. However, since the tournament is being staged during the festival time, they are slightly optimistic they would get replacements for the ones that have backed out.

“Sponsors are badly hit. Moreover, we are moving the tournament to almost different weather cycle. In summers different category of sponsors advertises and in winters altogether different category hits the market,” the CEO conceded.

“Tell me, what an Air Conditioner brand will do with us in the month of Oct-Nov? It will be difficult to find sponsors at the same values on which we had earlier signed our deals. But IPL is happening during festival time, we are hopeful that at least we will get replacements for the ones who have pulled out.“

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