The brand value of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has seen a drop for the first time in the last seven years.
According to a report by Duff & Phelps, a Kroll Business, an independent advisory firm, IPL's brand value in 2020 fell by 3.6 percent to Rs 45,800 crore in 2020 from Rs 47,500 crore in 2019.
The 13th edition of IPL saw lower sponsorship revenues as compared to previous years with Dream11 paying Rs 222 crore for the season, as against Vivo’s cancelled contract of Rs 440 crore per season for the IPL title sponsorship.
Along with Vivo's exit and lower sponsorship revenue, COVID-19 played a spoilsport for the league. The league was delayed by around six months due to the pandemic. In addition, a lot of sponsorship deals had seen reduction in value for reasons ranging from IPL being played behind closed doors due to COVID-19, less spending by advertisers due to coronavirus impact.
Even the franchises saw a dip in value with Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings seeing a sharp fall in value by 16.5 percent from Rs 732 crore in 2019 to Rs 611 crore in 2020.
After CSK, Kolkata Knight Riders saw a significant fall in brand value by 13.7 percent from Rs 629 crore in 2019 to Rs 543 crore in 2020.
The team that saw the least drop in brand value is Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians that saw a decline of 5.9 percent from Rs 809 crore in 2019 to Rs 761 crore in 2020.
As the matches were played without any spectators in UAE, the venue for the 13the edition of IPL was shifted from India to UAE due to coronavirus outbreak, franchises had to let go of gate revenues which was around Rs 400 crore.
"The individual franchisees have witnessed a reduction in their brand values mainly due to reduced franchisee-related sponsorship revenue, loss of gate receipts, reduced food and beverage (F&B) revenue and certain teams’ on-field performances," the report highlighted.
