Gujarat Titans locks sponsors for IPL 2024, says not far away from break even

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Gujarat Titans, the two seasons old franchise is already prepping up for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2024. It has locked sponsors and is looking to double its fanbase.

Out of the 10 jersey sponsorship slots, the team has finalised brands for seven properties which includes front helmet, lead arm, among others.

"Sponsorship revenue will be higher for the next season (2024). From the first season to the last season, (sponsorship) revenues were 37 percent higher. There are 10 properties from your helmet down to your trousers and we have only one left," Colonel Arvinder Singh, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Gujarat Titans, told Moneycontrol.

Also read: With the biggest cricket stadium as home ground, Gujarat Titans sees high ticket revenues

He said that lot of the existing sponsors are coming back. "We have retained sponsors for seven out of the 10 slots. This was completed in the first week of October. All these are at enhanced prices. We have signed up new partners as well. This is only kit sponsors. There are other official sponsors and many of them are continuing with the team," he said.

Brands like Bisleri, Ather Energy, BKT Tires, among others were associated with the franchise in 2023 edition of IPL.

Break-even point

The team joined the IPL bandwagon in 2022 when the league added two new teams. French private equity firm CVC Capital had acquired the team for Rs 5,625 crore. Singh had earlier said that team's revenue in 2023 was 38 percent higher than 2022 with the franchise ranking third versus the other nine franchises in terms of revenue.

Also read: IPL: All you need to know about the controversy around CVC Capital’s ownership of Gujarat Titans

"For any franchise, revenue streams include share of central revenue and BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) distributes 50 percent of it to franchises and 45 percent is equitable and 5 percent is as per your league standards. We were in top of the league both years so we got maximum revenue. Now, couple that with sponsorship and ticketing revenue. In terms of expenditure, there is franchise fees of Rs 562 crore then there is player and operation cost. We are not too far away from breaking even," the COO said.

The team got to play its first home and away format this year in one of the biggest stadiums, the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad. While for most teams, ticketing revenue contributes 20 percent to overall revenues, for Gujarat Titans the share was around 40 percent.

"In 2023, we played in our home city of Ahmadabad and our gate revenues were 20 percent higher than expected. There are a lot of learnings and using that we will begin our off season activities next month onwards which will be directed towards our target group. We will get active around the Navratri festival," Singh said.

Also read: How IPL turned into Decacorn with $10.9 billion valuation in 15 years

Focus on fans

The team expects to double its fanbase in the coming year. "From the first year to second, there was a 250 percent increase in team's fanbase. Some of the plans like offering shuttle service to the cricket stadium in Ahmedabad and other such offerings have helped change the mindset that watching a game in a stadium is too much of a hassle for our target group. The biggest gain is that we are becoming the second most favorite team of people which our data has revealed," Singh said.

He added that on TV, the top 5 regions that got maximum TRPs (Television Rating Point) for IPL, Gujarat Titans is number two in each of the regions.

The team is keeping its fans engaged through its app which is close to a million downloads in one year.

Also read: WPL scores Rs 1,250 crore in valuation for debut season, IPL 2023 sees 6% uptick in value

Along with working on increasing the fanbase and improving the business side of things, Singh and his team is working on enhancing the capabilities of the players. "The date of final retention of players for the next season is not final yet. Initially it was November 15 but it won’t be happening while the World Cup is going on. It could be possibly be by the end of November. We will be going through our trials to improve capabilities of our cricketing team," he said.