EPL Vs IPL - Comparison - I

Given the recent hype IPL has been enjoying, I decided to do a small comparison here:

League: Governing, Game Format, Finances

Criteria/League	IPL	EPL
Year of Formation	2008	1992
Season	April-May	August-May
No. of Franchises	8	20 (over 40 leagues have played)
No. of Matches	59	380
Location of games	Night matches on Home and away basis	Home and away basis
Revenue	Yet To Be Seen	3.7 Billion $ (2007-2008) by all clubs.
TV rights (including overseas rights)	~$1 Billion for 10 yrs by Sony (addition $10-15 million by Network Ten)	£45 million a year from 2007 to 2010
Prize Money	5 million $	£10 million
Governed By	IPL council	operated and jointly owned by the 20 member clubs.
Record Attendance for sports event (1,2)	13,094,307 (Average: 34,459) 2006-2007 EPL	425,622 (Average: 30,401) 2006-07 Commonwealth Bank Series

Finances:

Prize Money: per se is not such a big attraction in either case. EPL is owned by member clubs, so members draw their money from money pool with EPL accumulated mainly by broadcasting revenues.

In case of IPL , the revenue share model in years one to five is that 80% of the revenues from media rights are being redistributed back to the franchises, and 60% of the central sponsorship revenue gradually reducing this amount over the life of the contract.

Individual club earnings are from stadium tickets, club advertisements for both leagues. So that will be key differentiating factor in earnings of clubs just like EPL (although some difference is created at Prize Money level as well). MANU Vs Liverpool may draw record crowds so these two clubs are far ahead in the year-end earnings amongst the 20 clubs.

(P.S.:I don't know on what basis is broadcasting revenue distributed among EPL clubs and on what basis will it be distributed to IPL clubs by IPL governing council.)

Absolute fan base may not be such a big factor since TV audiences have already been covered by TV rights, where both are on nearly equal footing.

Stadium attendances will be the key differentiating factor. Average stadium attendance may be close but absolute is what is going to earn money here. So here IPL loses out and again since it is hosting much less no. of games.

EPL registers record attendances in both home and away games. Enough heat has been generated for IPL and all matches are being hosted in Indian cities (some like Kolkata which have recorded upto 100,000 in ODI matches) so here too IPL is matching upto EPL's strength.

Merchandise wise anyone can guess IPL will be nowhere close to EPL. IPL franchises are still building their clubs while EPL has a legacy of 16 yrs behind it and merchandise forms a decent part of premiership club incomes.

Conclusion:

IPL may lose out to EPL because EPL' season is longer so more matches and more money. IPL may again just lost out to EPL on per match basis as well since EPL's tickets are again overpriced (184$ for a 2006-2007 Arsenal match!!) which may not be a feasibility in India. Also IPL clubs may have negligible merchandise sales.

Click here to see 07/08 Ticket Prices for Premier League Clubs.

P.S.: I don't follow EPL so there may be inaccuracies here. Correct me if I am wrong.

Addendum

Read Ganesh's comments, I think there are certain correction to contribution of merchandise sales in my post. Also I mis-understood the TV rights part. Figures for EPL are per club.

Sense of Humor

Hmmm some time back I thought of this but took some time to realize the full importance of it.Everyone often appreciates someone who has a good SEnse of Humor (SEH). "The one" keeps everyone smiling and is often very confident.

But I want to point something else in this regard. Some days back I said to my friend (who put it across to me that I have a bad sense of humor because I crack something and start laughing myself at it), "You know most of the time, having a bad sense of humor really helps". After scratching the brain trying to think, she asked me how that was possible. I said that it helps because it helps you laugh out loud on every occasion and not wait for someone with a good SEH and crack a good joke and make you laugh. You can even treat it to be a gift.

Well I think the timing was apt as well: the Budget when FM was announcing the budget. Among the many "disappointing" news he dished out (yes even I fail to understand, who gets benefited by this budget), one had a reference to pets' owners. Although the humor was quite subtle but nearly every channel picked this up to prove the insincerity of the intentions of the budget.Then yesterday as I was watching FM being questioned by an economist and Prannoy Roy, the last question was, "Sir, did you mean to put some SEH in your budget speech when you referred to pets?" FM in his normal cool and to-the-point manner retorted, "I wish that every one has some sense of humor in this life or the after life"

I too wish that everyone has some SEH, good or bad, doesn’t matter. Then, just may be, not everyone will take to streets on release of Da Vinci Code's, M.F. Hussain's paintings, Salman Rushdie's books and so many things.

So isn’t having a “bad SEH” not all that bad??