Bengaluru FC, the football franchise that competes in the Indian Super League, on Wednesday questioned the new proposed policy for using sports stadiums under the jurisdiction of Department of Youth Empowerment & Sports (DYES).
The DYES, at the Sports Authority of Karnataka (SAK) committee meeting recently, drafted new rules pertaining to the use of its stadiums. In the policy, 25% of ticket money collected during franchise-based tournaments at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium must be paid to DYES. Also, the DYES wants the franchises to issue tickets only via online platforms.
Apart from that, DYES has demanded 25% of in-stadia advertisement revenue collected by the franchises. “Except the organisation that conducts the event, if any other organisation/company publishes any advertisement, 25 per cent of the fee collected in this regard shall have to be paid to the DYES,” says the policy.
“The proposed revised policy is far from sport-friendly,” Mandar Tamhane, CEO, BFC, told DH. The Kanteerava Stadium has been home to BFC since the 2014-15 season. “It doesn’t encourage anyone to host an event at the venue, more so with the financial implications the policy brings with it. No sport, spare cricket, is making a profit in the country and this policy ends up eating into the little money we make to cover our losses,” he opined.
The policy is open for response and objection till Thursday midnight, post which a decision will be taken in the next SAK meeting. The policy states that all amounts are excluding the money paid by franchises to rent the venue.
Apart from BFC, badminton team Bengaluru Raptors (Premier Badminton League) and kabaddi franchise Bengaluru Bulls (Pro Kabaddi League) have played their home games at the Kanteerava Stadium.
“The monthly expenditure to maintain the infrastructure of the indoor and outdoor stadiums is around Rs 35 lakh. We are giving free access to all local athletes. These franchise-based tournaments generate money and I think it’s fair to gain some percent of the revenue generated by these events for stadium maintenance,” said K Srinivas, commissioner, DYES.
400M track
In an attempt to provide uninterrupted training, The DYES has also planned to allow the use of 400 metres track to only national, international and sports hostel athletes.
(With inputs from Sandeep Menon)