Karnataka Super Division League is in for change – Venue first and gates second.

The Super Division hockey league of the Karnataka State Hockey League will be shifted from long held venue (Bangalore) to Madikeri (Coorg district). The league will be held from September 15 to October 12. Madikeri is traditionally a hockey provenance, with a large fan following.

The shift may have been necessasited due to delay in getting the new turf laid at the KSHA Stadium in Bangalore, but the administrators can change the hopless situation into an exciting opportunity to transform the league into an attractive proposition — commercially and competitionwise. I think the change of venue and thinking of gates money are definitely good signs.

It is a positive sign that the KSHA is reported to have introduced gate money for the Medikari event. Nowadays nothing comes free — and why competitive hockey free of cost? The move shows two measures. One, the confidence of the organizers and secondly a commerical sense which hockey normally lacks. Confidence, as everyone knows, rests with the responsbility.

It is a wrong notion that free gate means more crowd. Not at all. One solid example is 1998 and 1999 India-Pak Series. In most venues in 1998, except Jalandhar, gate was there. There was good crowd response too. In Delhi, the Delhi Hockey Association, could sell ticket worth of Rs. 7 lakhs despite not spending single rupee on advertisement. IN th next year, despite gates free hardly five hundred people witnessed the match in Delhi.

There are some side benefits also in gate money culture. The local outfit can set a target and try to achieve it. It means sports is not just about booking accomodation and arranging transport. These essentials needed to be added with more zeal to market the game. With marketing, professionalism will come. For instance, there will be more involvement of local unit so as to advertise the event well in time. Mere newspaper flashes won’t do.

There should be hoardings all across Medikeri to pep up the climax. The approach should be, how to entice more section of public to hockey ground? With various measures to achieve this, more responsibility can come with the organizers — local and state level. Once success, the model can be repeated with more tools next time. This is how a game should grow. Unfortunately, hockey has not seen much of change in thinking.

Remember paying public demands performance from the teams, another indirect benefit of hockey tournament becoming competitive rather than a ritual.

Even suppose if not much gate money does come this time — I don’t think such question would arise in case Medikeri at least — one can think of doing more to increasing gates to desired level next time. The idea is, brains should not rest and rust. New ideas and concepts need to come quite often, and the first step of which has been taken by the KSHA now.

Like in Surjit Hockey tournament, the ticket buyers may be given a pleasant prize in any day, mostly on the final day, which could be includive and attractive.

Unfortunately, all said and done, Karnataka does not have a single Grade I tournament and it is a blur on the State which prides itself of producing half a dozen players for the national team. A properly organized and marketed League can, to some extent, erase the blur.

The prize money: Rs 1.50 lakh for the winners. Rs 1. 00 lakh for the runners-up. Rs. 75,000 for the third placed team. The team finishing fourth Rs 25,000.

Fomat:
Unlike in the past, the Super Division will be played in two tiers — Main Event and Preliminary. The top six teams of the 12 which figured in the Super Division last year will get direct entries into the main event. BPCL and Namdharis, who opted out last year because of the bad turf conditions, will join them to form a group of eight. They will be joined by two outfits which top an eight-team preliminary round. The ten teams will then play a roundrobin league for the title.