4 franchises already on board for WSH: Nimbus

MUMBAI: Indian Hockey Federation’s marketing partner, Nimbus Sport will be investing close to Rs 1.25 billion for the inaugural World Series Hockey which includes player’s salaries, marketing and staging of the tournament among others.

Nimbus will recover it’s investments through sale of on-ground sponsorships and telecast rights as well as through sale of franchises.

“We believe by the time tournament starts our investment will be in the region of 125 crores (Rs 1.25 billion) everyhting put together but we will recoup a major portion of that from sponsors, broadcasters and franchises and over a period of time hopefully make some money,” Nimbus Communications chairman Harish Thawani Thursday told reporters at a media conference here.

He also informed that four franchises on an invitation-basis have already joined hands with two of them signing formal franchisee contracts while, the remaining four franchises will be selected through tendering process.

The four franchises come from six cities that have been selected as venues. Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Punjab (Amritsar, Jalandhar and Chandigarh) have been selected as venues for inaugural WSH which will run from 15 December to 22 January.

The names of the franchises, Thawani said, would be announced only after a broadcast partner has been finalised.

“The invited franchises hands have been shaken and infact two have already signed contracts, let me not steal their thunder they will make separate anouncement each week down the road.

“The process we are following is that in August we want to sign-up broadcasters there are four interested broadcasters, we will run a competetive deal for who gives the best deal for the World Series Hockey.

“Once we conclude that then we will announce the franchises as we have mentioned the first four franchises will be by invitation and the next four by competetive process,” Thawani added.

Thawani also stated that each franchise owner will be investing close to Rs 2.15 billion over a period of 15 years.

The company plans to undertake a 360 degree marketing campaign which it believes will help in building loyalties for the teams as well as WSH.

“The investment made by the organisers and franchises in developing affinity programmes for the respective teams plays a big role in any league and as you can see six months before the tournament we have launched the website today, the Facebook presence and the series of initiative that will be unfolded, these will help us develop affinity,” Thawani averred.

“Six months ahead of the tournament the captains have been announced because obviously superstar personalities that help in people following their games so there will be a 360 degree marketing campaign both for World Series Hockey as well as the franchises and the superstar players.

“Over six months period we believe that affinity will be strong enough bear in mind the earlier attempt to do Hockey league in India suffered from two infirmities and I want to draw the distinction firstly it was one slash two venue tournament so it doesen’t develop local following, the home and away format is essential to the sucess of any city-based tournament,” he asserted.

He also said that WSH was a different product from the earlier Premier League Hockey since the former is a franchise based league and the latter was owned by a single entity. Besides PHL was played at two venues while WSH will have home and away matches which Thawani believed was critical to the popularity of the league.

“A franchise-based league gets significant investment from franchises otherwise we agreed to sign 176 players from around the world would not exist in a single organiser so it’s a collaborative and co-operative effort that ensures there is enough financial inestment made in players, infrastructure and the brand,” he held.

Outlining Nimbus’ role in the league, Thawani said, “Our role is to create the infrastructure, bring the players, devise the tournament, create branding, produce TV signals, sell national and international rights, bring sponsorships.”

Courtesy: Sportzpower