BANGALORE
UB Group (Vijay Mallya)
Cost: $111.6m

It would have been tough to imagine IPL without UB Group or Vijay Mallya. Much to the surprise of Reliance Industries, Mallya bid for Bangalore at a price that is almost as high as Mumbai. “It was disappointing to miss out on Mumbai,” Mallya had ruefully announced after the bidding was over and winners were announced.
However, getting Bangalore isn’t a bad bargain for the chairman of the UB Group that has its headquarters in the same city. For starters, the biggest brand of the group, Kingfisher, will be involved with Twenty20 cricket. Mallya got involved with the BCCI recently and has made it to the marketing committee.
His other sporting associations include owning a F1 team, I-League football club and being title sponsor of Mumbai Open tennis and the Indian Derby. Market analysts insist that team-owners like Mallya and Ambani have not entered the league to earn out of it. For Mallya personally, says brand consultant Atul Phadnis, the IPL provides a great opportunity to showcase his brands. “The IPL will provide an alternate form of entertainment from which business houses will have a lot to gain. It has the capacity to create a large space for team owners,” says Phadnis.

MOHALI
Consortium of Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and Karan Paul
Cost: $76m

Along with beau Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing), business scions Mohit Burman (Dabur) and Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendra Group), Preity Zinta owns Team Mohali.
Wadia, Burman and Paul entering the fray is logical given their business interests and the fact that Mohali has been a traditional cricket venue in the country. Zinta’s involvement, apart from the glamour factor, is surprising. But Kakkar explains: “Preity has the smartest business manager in the country today. Inder Malik has a shrewd brain and he has advised her well. For someone like Preity being an actor is a zero percentage business investment.
She can use the gains from her movie career here. It’s a fun thing and certainly a win-win situation for her,” he says.
Brand consultant Atul Phadnis says that team-owners will be looking to bring in as much star attraction as possible. “IPL is all about luring eyeballs to the television,” he says.
The brand consultant goes on to explain how television is always looking for something new. “Let’s talk about the adult male, who usually has to share prime time television with family members, watching family sagas or news. Twenty20 cricket, a thrilling two-and-half-hour match, will provide him that fresh change,” explains Phadnis.
Zinta provides the glamour quotient that can be a factor when it comes to the team’s popularity. As Phadnis puts it, the mix of a filmstar, business magnates, star cricketers — Indians and overseas players — and the thrill of Twenty20 “will emerge as a different cuisine to those used to a staple diet” of the typical saas-bahu serials, quiz and reality shows running by the dozen.

... contd.