by Harmit Singh Kamboe

Bringing the NFL to Life
As the 11th year of the NFL kicked off to life, in a vastly empty Ambedkar Stadium in Delhi, one cannot help but feel a tinge of regret at the lack of style and substance on offer. While one can always blame Cricket for hogging the public attention and media rupees, relying on those reasons alone would be lame excuses.

Interest in domestic football in our country is alive and well and two statistics bear that out.

1. 2006 World Cup Media Coverage was triple that of the West Indies-India Cricket Series in 6 major urban Indian cities.
Spatial Audit, a media audit firm (as reported by the Business Standard) put a significant 32 percent of the audience watching football moved on to cricket during half time and a higher 45 percent at the end of the football match. Clearly this proves that football and cricket can co-exist in India. The success of one sport is not the kiss of death for the other.

2. Key matches of the 61st Santosh Trophy and the 28th Federation Cup have generated higher Television Rating Points (TRP's) than some of the English Premier League maches in India, telecast at the same time.
This was stated by none other than Gary Lovejoy, the COO of Zee Sports.
With 36% of India's population below the age of 15 years, India is a very young country, demographically speaking. The success of the Premier Hockey League launched by ESPN Star Sports clearly shows that sports broadcasters know that sports marketing and sports are a goldmine in India.

But how do we make the NFL a better marketing vehicle. How do we make fathers, sons, wives, mothers, daughters and parents across the country intimately aware of Surkumar Singh as they are with Sachin Tendulkar.

While the list is long, I choose to focus on just one main recommendation - play in stadiums where floodlights are available.

Why are floodlights so critical you ask?

1. Floodlights means the games will be played in the evenings. This is when people are back from work and can watch the game live in the stadium or at home on the TV. TV coverage of a game at night is far more attractive than during the day time.
It is true that the NFL games are played in leased stadiums but the AIFF does have enough funds to consider some kind of a partnership/alliance with stadiums of municipal corporations to make this happen.

2. Higher viewership on TV means more advertising income for TV channels. Greater income for the TV channels means there will be more money flowing to the AIFF and hopefully then to the NFL/Clubs.

3. Higher viewership will also translate into higher prices for ad rates on players jerseys. East Bengal are able to charge upto Rs. 5 million for a year for a logo on a lottery on the sleeves of the shirts and shorts for a year. To put that in perspective, the winner of the NFL 2007, will take home only Rs. 4 million.
Clubs will be able to keep that money and invest it into player development and greatly defray their costs of operation.

As Indians we have seen, how the Day-Night Cricket games took the passion for cricket to a new level. The financial spin-off associated with cricket also rocketed upwards as TV stations started to outbid each other with outlandish prices.
The beneficiary was that Board of Cricket Control in India and the Indian consumer. The BCCI was able to fund stadium modernisation, a leading edge National Cricket Academy and new stadiums across the country and the Indian fans got a team that had the best of everything as therefore manages to win, every now and then.
There is no reason that the AIFF should not be able to do what the BCCI has done. It already has a sizeable deal with Zee Sports for funds from TV and marketing rights that it sold off for 10 years in 2005. Moving to a Pro League without addressing the issue of floodlights and all the ensuing benefits it brings will not bring a great turn around in domestic football.

As far as the NFL is concerned, God has not yet said, "Let there be light".