As the world is reeling from the Coronavirus pandemic, the sporting events have been one of the worst-hit industries till now. Forcing all the industries to either suspend their season or cancel them. In India, the biggest T20 tournament Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the mega-events that has been put on hold due to coronavirus.
Initially, the IPL was postponed till April 14 due to the scarce of the coronavirus. The BCCI is still waiting for the approval of the Government of India and Ministry of Home Affairs for the Visa clearance.
And as per the reports, the BCCI is considering the possibilities of holding the IPL as early as July, but maybe behind the closed doors. The BCCI has been in regular talks with the IPL teams and the Government after the 21-day coronavirus lockdown announced by the Indian Government.
“The board is looking at an alternate window to host matches, possibly in July, or latest during winter,” a BCCI official told CNBC-TV18 on condition of anonymity.
The BCCI is under tremendous pressure, given the financial commitments to the stakeholders and the broadcasters. So chances are that IPL matches will be held without fans in the stadium “but only as last resort”. However, the matches will be broadcasted on the Televisions.
The source also confirmed that if the IPL is not held this year, the organizers might lose something around 5,000-Rs 7,500 crore of its Rs 47,500 crore valuation as per the Duff & Phelps report last year.
“If the lockdown is extended, it would be difficult to have a full-fledged IPL in the current window till the beginning of June,” the source added.
In fact, the loss of revenue coming from the sponsors is estimated to be around Rs 400 crore alone from the VIVO who had signed a Rs 2,000 crore deal for a period of 5 years with the league. And if the IPL is called off, Star Sports (official broadcasters) would lose around Rs 3269.50 crore. They had acquired broadcasting rights for Rs 16,347 crore in 2018 for five years.
