We Are Paying Players Decent Money

Joy Bhattacharjya, a man of many hats, is a renowned quizzer, orator and writer and sports producer. He is the CEO of Pro Volleyball League, former team director of the IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders and has also served as the director for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. In an interview with BW Education, Bhattacharjya talks about the challenges of starting a sports league. Excerpts:

How are volleyball and football coming up in India and what is the infrastructure being created?

The two are different types of games. Both are doing extremely well. However, Kabbadi is doing well because Star TV has invested in it. The players are now getting Rs 1.5 crore whereas they started from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. Because it’s an established game with good TRPs.

In volleyball, we have done one season well. Our top players get Rs 18-20 lakh during auctions, which is still far away from what cricket league players are getting, but it’s a substantial sum of money. More importantly, I think it’s a profitable league. If we talk about infrastructure, volleyball has some great advantages. It doesn’t need too much money to play. Secondly, it’s an urban-cum rural sport and a lot of rural people play volleyball.

Are youngsters enthused by volleyball? Currently, where do our players stand?

To create enthusiasm, we need a moral character. Sport depends on heroes and heroines. Neeraj Chopra’s has inspired many athletes, which means there are a lot of Javelin throwers in the making for coming championships.

The rise of world boxing champion Nikhat Zareen will give a boost to boxing. Similarly, our volleyball team is playing brilliantly and that is having a positive impact on other players. As you see, Kerala is all ready, there’s a lot of impact in Tamil Nadu as well.

What is the role of media in making some of these sports popular?

Stories have been created via broadcast media. The more people watch the game, the more it becomes a series of successes. We partnered with the Sony channel. They are helping us in building a product. We put it on Sony’s five channels, including English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. Plus, it’s on SonyLiv.

To make it a success, we have a different strategy. We keep two top international players in every team. We have players like David Lee, who is a double Olympian and gold medallist. At least four or five Olympians have played in our league, which is fantastic for the league.

What are some of the challenges of these leagues and what are the solutions?

If you look at our league, we have started with a legal dispute with the Volleyball Federation of India. Today, we have more sponsors than any other league in India. If you look at the league last year, we had almost 112 sponsors. The problem is that a lot of leagues start with a lot of hope. But if you can’t get enough sponsorship, then the league is not financially viable.

If we talk about incentives, we are paying players decent money, but not over-the-top like cricket. We are keeping our expenses in control so that we know that we have viability. And that is really important for us. We’re investing in making the product very strong.