Poor performance did not harm RCB profit commercially, says chairman Amrit Thomas

The Challengers have reported profits for the first time in the IPL.

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Having played all the 11 seasons of the Indian Premier League, Virat Kohli’s team Royal Challengers Bangalore is yet to lift the cup and has failed to make it to the playoffs for half a dozen times. The failure of RCB becomes more prominent than the other teams every season because of the team’s huge popularity and large fan base.

However, the cricketing statistics have not affected the cash-box till date, and the owner company of the team are well off with considerable profit to show for it. In fact, for United Spirits Ltd (USL), the UK based beverage company that owns the franchise, 2018 has been the best year in terms of profitability and commercial success.

RCB’s performance has nothing to do with Vijay Mallya

Ironically, the biggest challenge for the Challengers this season were their own limited cohesion in the team. Most members were new to the team, sparing a handful, and they had a hard time clicking together and finding the right combinations to go with.

But according to USL officials, the lack of achievements is completely cricket-based and has nothing to do with the controversies associated with the former owner Vijay Mallya. In fact, RCB turned profitable for the first time last year once Mallya called it quits, and this year the numbers have jumped significantly, according to USL.

Mallya bought the franchise of RCB in 2008 when the tournament started till he was caught up in 2016 with various investigation all over the country for defaulting loans in excess of ₹9,000 crores. Ever since British distiller, Diageo took control of the wheel as the parent company of USL, and they are very much interested in keeping the team going.

“RCB is an integral part of the Diageo India (USL) business and the company remains committed to RCB. We have learnt from the last decade. This year we strengthened the profit and loss, significantly enhanced fan experiences and focused on putting together a more balanced squad that got us to within one game of the playoffs,” said Amrit Thomas, USL’s marketing head and chairman of RCB.

The reason behind RCB’s popularity

Even with all the ownership changes, controversies and continuous failure of winning the title, RCB managed to have one of the largest fanbases of IPL, thanks to the likes of Indian captain Virat Kohli and cricket world’s beloved AB de Villiers.

“RCB has the strongest face in terms of brand and market value today in Kohli. Despite RCB losing every game, their fans are such staunch supporters that so many losses have also not affected their commitment. Kohli and A.B. de Villiers are madly worshipped—they are not players for the fans, they are demi-gods. And historically victory has not really affected the commercial performance of a team,” stated a cricket analyst who chooses to remain anonymous.

Sponsorship and fan support

In terms of sponsors too, RCB has managed quite well without the star power of Mallya’s breweries empire, and almost 95% of their revenues now come from external partnerships with big companies like Eros Now, Dominos and HP.

“Such is the team’s fan following that we were sold out in many of the home games. We also have expressions of interest from corporates/fans wanting season tickets in advance for next year,” Thomas said about the situation.

The studded sponsor’s list and the packed stadiums of Chinnaswamy are naturally enough to give the owners the assurance to say that ‘all is well’ in the franchise, as well as the confidence to keep working on building the team.

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