IPL 2023: Tickets sold out, gate revenues to increase 20% as home and away format returns

Picture of IPL trophy during 2023 auction. Image: IPL

Fans of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are finding it difficult to land tickets for matches with venues either filling fast or fully booked already. Given the craze for the league, especially with the home and away format making a comeback, gate revenues are expected to increase by 20 percent over pre-Covid numbers.

Mumbai resident Nusrat Naik found it tough to book seats for the upcoming IPL matches. "It is hard to get tickets for MI (Mumbai Indians) and CSK (Chennai Super Kings) matches. I somehow managed to get tickets to the MI versus CSK match on April 8 at Wankhede Stadium, which was sold out in 30 minutes. Also, a lot of my friends tried to book tickets for the opening match between CSK versus Gujarat Titans (GT) but it was all full."

Spending Rs 3,500 on one ticket for the MI versus CSK match, Naik said that she is taking time out to watch IPL in the stadium to be among other fans and cheer for her favourite team, MI. "I am going with my friend to attend the match and we are big MI fans and didn't want to miss seeing the players on the field from the stadium," she said.

Fans are jumping from BookMyShow to Paytm Insider which are selling IPL tickets online but for many matches, tickets are sold out already. Tickets on these platforms start from Rs 3,500 per person and go as high as Rs 10,000 for premium seats.

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High ticket sales

The opening match on March 31 between CSK and GT has seen the highest traction with tickets sold out within four days of going live. "With the match being the first and MS Dhoni playing, out of the total 75,000 tickets up for sale, 63,000 were for online which are sold out. The rest were kept for offline sale for people in Ahmedabad and surrounding cities like Surat and Baroda as many people prefer buying tickets offline," said a GT official.

Gujarat Titans, the side that won the IPL trophy last year, said that the excitement for the opening match is high as they are the defending champions and the match is being played on the home ground at the Narendra Modi Stadium with a capacity of over 1,30,000. (Last year’s final between Rajasthan Royals and GT at the venue set a Guinness World Record with an attendance of 1,01,566.) Also, to ensure convenience, GT has offered home delivery of tickets, which 99 percent online buyers have opted for, said GT COO Arvinder Singh to a news publication.

There is high interest in other matches as well and tickets are getting sold rapidly, said an official of one of the IPL teams. "People are pre-booking in large numbers because they know it will be sold out," he added.

"I was looking for MI versus CSK but that got sold out. Now, I am trying to book tickets for MI versus RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore) on May 9 at Wankhede Stadium and also checking for MI versus KKR (Kolkata Knight Riders) on April 16. High-traction matches are getting sold out fast. It feels like the moment tickets go live, people are booking it and I am late all the time," said Mansoor Khan, a PR professional from Mumbai.

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Eager to watch IPL matches in a stadium, he said that he is looking forward to hearing people chanting Dhoni's name during any of the CSK matches. "I wanted to do the same but haven't yet got a ticket for a CSK match," he added ruefully

Uptick in gate revenues

IPL is returning to many cities after about three years so there is enough demand, said Santosh N, managing partner of D and P Advisory, a valuation services provider.

"I expect in-stadia revenue to grow reasonably well and expect gate receipts to be higher than pre-Covid numbers. In-stadia revenue will see 15-20 percent increase from pre-Covid times when the in-stadia revenue was Rs 3-5 crore per match depending on the stadium," he said.

Pre-Covid, franchises earned around Rs 400 crore from the sale of tickets through the league. However, IPL was not only moved to the United Arab Emirates but was also held behind closed doors, sans spectators, due to the Covid-19 impact. Last year when the IPL came back to India, it was restricted to Mumbai.

"We expect gate revenues to be higher than pre-Covid and the signs are there especially seeing attendance for WPL (the Women’s Premier League that concluded its inaugural tournament on March 26). The stadia fill was impressive at about 70-80 percent. Even for Delhi Capitals (men's IPL), we have got good response for ticket sales ever since the tickets went live," said Divyanshu Singh, chief operating officer of JSW Sports, which has a stake in the Delhi Capitals.

"There is a lot of buzz for watching IPL in a stadium with most of my conversations with friends on whether any of us have got hold tickets for any of the matches. It feels like there is more craze for IPL compared with the pre-Covid era because the home-and-away format was not there for three years. I am rushing to book tickets for MI versus RC because that match will be a crowd-puller with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma playing against each other," said Khan, a fan from Mumbai.