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Volleyball is on the rise in India and it has a lot to do with the RuPay Prime Volleyball League, which is currently hosting its second season. Despite being very much in the nascent stages, it is making the right noise in the Indian sports circuit and it’s only getting started.
The RuPay Prime Volleyball League, distinctive in nature, is already taking giant strides. Sportskeeda's Business of Sports sat down with Tuhin Mishra, the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Baseline Ventures, to gain deeper insights into the league that is growing exponentially while still in its formative phase.
Starting from the unique nature of the league and the risk factors involved for various stakeholders to the viable plans for expansion in the coming years, we discussed a range of topics in this conversation. These will certainly leave you more aware of the volleyball scene, not only in India but also abroad.
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The Indian Premier League is a trendsetter in Indian sports. Following its massive success, there have been many attempts by other sports organizations from the nation to set up a league that could replicate the heights that the IPL has achieved. Unfortunately, most of those efforts never met the expectations and promises that they had shown initially.
Baseline Ventures MD Tuhin Mishra on what makes the RuPay Prime Volleyball League unique
“We are firm believers that any team sport has a much better chance of succeeding than any other individual sport. The fact of the matter is that, as fans, when you follow an individual sport, you’re following the sportsperson rather than the sport he or she is playing.”
Mr. Tuhin Mishra believes that because volleyball is a team sport, it has been able to edge past other leagues in India that never really took off among the local masses.
“The second thing that we have in the RuPay Prime Volleyball League is the concept of how we have created this league. Nowhere in the country is there a league where the team owners are also the owners. This means that all team owners are part of every decision that is taken for the league. Because at the end of the day, it’s a matter of concern for all of them - it’s not just Baseline Ventures being the sole promoters of the league.”
Something new, that hasn’t been done before always appeals to the Indian audience who wants to consume top-quality sports. That is why the IPL is a global phenomenon. Given whatever little we have seen so far in the RuPay Prime Volleyball League, it has all the makings to create a similar impact.
Mr. Tuhin elaborated further on this new model:
“It’s a very unique aspect of the league. It’s a model that has been successful in the West. We feel that it can work very well in our country as well if others are looking at this kind of structure. What this allows is the best practices of many team owners coming into the picture for the betterment of the league.”
The ownership of all team owners extends beyond just their team to the entire league. Not only does this allow them to extend their business mindset to their squads, but also ensures that the league expands and does well.
“In our RuPay Prime Volleyball League, all of the team owners have been successful businessmen and entrepreneurs. Therefore, extracting the best of their knowledge to run the company in a way that has a vision and is working towards the growth of the players becomes our plan of action. From there, the sky is the limit.”
Successful Indian business strategies can be extrapolated to the sports context to a large extent. That’s what Baseline Ventures is banking on, that the team/league owners will make it a lucrative project for all the parties involved.
The proposition of initiating a sports league in India has always been perceived as a risky move. We asked Mr. Tuhin to take us into the depths of how the investors in the league go about their business in the execution stage. He responded by saying:
“The financial cost of running the league is looked at by everyone since it’s their own money going in. Everyone is trying to figure out how can they can obtain the best value for their buck, with respect to financial planning.”
The benefits from the investors
There’s the cost and then comes the revenue side. Mr. Tuhin communicated that the league didn’t have to go through an incessant battle in search of funding:
“Thankfully we’ve got some great sponsors who have come on board with us right from the opening season. Every team has also now managed to get sponsors for them at the team level as well. There are teams with 8-10 sponsors that have allowed certain teams to break even. Or come close to covering their expenditures within the first season, which is a great achievement.”
Most of the leagues in this country take time before they break even. The early signs of the RuPay Prime Volleyball League have been highly encouraging. To contextualize these early wins, Mr. Tuhin also added:
“Again, there’s no nothing right or wrong to it, it’s part of the whole journey of creating a league. In any league that you see around the world, you need to be invested for a certain amount of time before you start reaping the returns. We’re fortunate to have managed our costs very nicely and being prudent about it. At least the financial burden, per se, isn’t too bad for any of the team owners.”
The scope of sports entrepreneurship in India is also experiencing an upward curve. While it might not have directly converged with the RuPay Prime Volleyball League yet, Mr. Tuhin agrees that the league has benefited immensely from the interest shown by other entrepreneurs:
“Absolutely. Once the opening season reached its conclusion, we started receiving lots of interest from potential owners who wanted to join us. We decided to move forward and finalize the potential owners for the Mumbai team. That’s when PhonePe co-founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari joined the RuPay Prime Volleyball League and acquired the Mumbai franchise - named Mumbai Meteors.”
The primary aim of the league surrounds the fact that volleyball needs to be made more popular across the country. When high net-worth individuals start showing their support for a growing sport, that’s when the process gets facilitated. Mr. Tuhin acknowledged what the Mumbai owners have brought to the table:
“We couldn’t have been happier to have these gentlemen on board with us. They have been some of the most successful entrepreneurs in India. They are very passionate about the sport and believe in the cause that we all set out to achieve last year. They really wanted to contribute and we’re seeing how actively involved they’ve been in starting their own team.”
The Mumbai side saw more than 500 fans in the stadium in the opening stages of the ongoing season, which is exactly what the organizers of the league would have hoped to witness.
“I’m sure when we are planning to expand, which should hopefully happen next season onwards or the season post that, we are looking for teams from North India.”
The league will only grow further in popularity when there are teams from different parts of the country. Mr. Tuhin shared the future scope of entrepreneurs in joining the league:
“Other successful entrepreneurs who want to come on board, there is potentially a great location for them to start by owning their team in the RuPay Prime Volleyball League.”
The celebrity status of the league
Taking reactions to Vijay Devarakonda signing up as the co-owner of Hyderabad Black Hawks, we asked whether big celebrities getting associated would help elevate the league to the next level. Mr. Tuhin responded:
“For sure, the Telugu and Southern superstar Vijay Devarakonda coming to Hyderabad and becoming a co-owner brings immense happiness to us. There couldn’t have been a better choice for an individual who has such a massive fan following all over the country. He’s a cult figure, and again someone who’s very passionate about the sport. He plays volleyball at a personal level and wants to contribute to the sport.”
Mr. Tuhin explained in greater detail how having Vijay Devarakonda could result in a brighter future for the RuPay Prime Volleyball League:
“Because of his star power, if we can help communicate the volleyball message across the country - especially in the belt of the Telugu-speaking region, it’s nothing like it for us. We want more and more people to follow the league. At the end of the day, the league becomes successful because of the fans that make it big. So, having this kind of star power certainly helps the proposition for which the whole league stands for.”
With all the buzz and excitement around the RuPay Prime Volleyball League, we asked Mr. Tuhin what he hopes the second season will bring to the newly established fanbase, to which he responded:
“We only hope and expect that the second season is going to get better and bigger. In the opening season, we had only one host city - Hyderabad. We had to do it behind closed doors because of the pandemic in February last year. This time around, we have 3 host cities - Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Cochin.“
The league is now being broadcast all over the world. Due to RuPay Prime Volleyball League’s international affiliations, it’s now possible for fans all over the world to watch it. It has been made available to viewers in the USA and Canada as well.
“Our expectation for the second season is that it will surpass what we did in the opening season, which had a cumulative TV viewership of 133 million in India alone. We should hopefully do a lot more this season with the amount of effort that has gone on behind it and most importantly, look at how people are embracing it. The positive feedback that we have received so far is heartening.”
Climbing the global ladder of volleyball
India will host the Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship in 2023 and 2024. The winners of the RuPay Prime Volleyball League will represent the nation in the tournament.
In action since 1989, this reputable volleyball event is being hosted by India for the first time. It wouldn’t have made justice to the entire conversation had we not asked Mr. Tuhin Mishra what this means for Indian volleyball.
“This whole announcement that happened a few days back, India hosting the World Club Championship for Volleyball is probably one of the most watershed events in Indian sports history in my opinion. It has never happened in any global sport, that the top club teams come down to Indian soil and compete here on our home turf.”
The enthusiasm and excitement are clear in his voice as he takes us through the intended results of this opportunity:
“The winners of RuPay Prime Volleyball League get to be a part of it as well. It will give our players the chance to play against the top volleyball players from around the world. It would obviously give them that exposure in terms of what is happening on the international stage of the sport in terms of the various skillsets involved at which the best in the world operate.”
There are added advantages to being the host nation of such a prestigious event.
“Our boys who would be playing in the World Championship have a massive opportunity to make it count. Since it is a global event, people around the world will be watching it - not only the fans but also the top international coaches and scouts who are always on the lookout for new players. Those are the people who will be looking into our players.”
Indian volleyball talent has already caught the attention of many people abroad. Mr. Tuhin also mentioned:
“We’re already getting a lot of attention because a lot of our Indian players can ply their trade in many of the Volleyball leagues around the world.”
These developments are consistent with what the vision of the league in India stands for. There couldn’t have been a more favorable outcome in the near future.
“This is what all of us had envisaged from Day 1. When we started the RuPay Prime Volleyball League, we wanted to create a platform and give an opportunity for Indian players to showcase their skills globally, not just in India. I think this is another feather in the hat of the entire effort of the league.”
Given the evidence that has come up so far, it would not be an outrageous claim to make that volleyball might become the next big sporting sensation in India. To what extent it might go on to prosper will only be revealed as time passes.
