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One of my strongest memories from my school days is hanging around the volleyball court. I never played the game but the court was a sort of place for water cooler chat. Every now and then, some of the more athletic kids would toss the ball around and we would watch them play; that was the limit of my association with the game.

This year though I suddenly found myself attracted to the court again. No, not in my dreams but on TV, thanks to the Prime Volleyball League. The league is the latest non-cricketing sports property to make a name for itself. It has all the glitz and glamour we’ve come to associate with sporting leagues in the country—famous owners, world-class production qualities, foreign players, and of course, player auctions. So, for this week’s edition, I thought it best to spotlight volleyball in India.

Origins

The Prime Volleyball League’s inaugural season was held in 2021. However, that was just old wine in a new bottle. The league actually started in 2019 under the name of Pro Volleyball League. It was the result of a joint collaboration between the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) and Baseline Ventures, a sports, entertainment and brand licensing firm. By all metrics, the league was a success. The stadiums were jam-packed and it attracted a TV viewership of 21 million. Despite its success, the collaboration soon turned sour. The VFI terminated the contract on grounds of breach of agreement. A protracted legal dispute ensued, which Baseline Ventures won. The apex body was asked to pay Baseline ₹6 crore ($800,000), including interest, an amount that VFI still hasn’t paid. Subsequently, VFI itself was suspended for shoddy governance in 2023.

It’s amid this mess that the Pro Volleyball League was reborn. In its new avatar, the league was rechristened as Prime Volleyball League (PVL) and got the backing of five of the six original team owners. This break from the past also allowed Baseline Ventures to innovate. The new league became India’s first private sporting league (since VFI did not recognise it) and the teams became stakeholders in the holding organisation of the league. This new model was based on the likes of the NBA and Major League Soccer.

I reached out to Vishal Jaison, co-founder of Baseline Ventures, to get a sense of this model. Jaison told me that the model is a perfect fit for the league as it ensures that franchises have skin in the game. This makes the franchises proactive participants, not just in the functioning of the league but in its success too. As per Jaison, “everyone collaborates on everything, from deciding venues for matches to promotion of the game as well.”

Business

Prime Volleyball’s innovation streak is not just restricted to the formulation of the league; the league has been tinkering around with the format of the game as well to make it engaging for viewers. It introduced a 15-point game along with novelties such as Super Point and Super Serve. Together, these innovations have played a pivotal role in attracting eyeballs. Between its two seasons, the league saw an 849% increase in viewership. On linear TV alone, the league registered a 55% increase in viewership. 

The league had partnered with Sony for domestic broadcasting right from its inception. For Sony, the partnership was a calculated move. In an interview with Moneycontrol, Sony’s Chief Revenue Officer, Rajesh Kaul, mentioned how volleyball had attracted almost 34 million views in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This when India wasn’t even participating, a clear sign of appetite for the game. The league has also partnered with Volleyball World, a collaboration between Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and CVC Capital, for international broadcasting. Given the presence of international players in the league, the league has attracted attention in countries like the UAE, the US, and Canada, among others.

Naturally, this meteoric rise and increased viewership has sponsors making a beeline for the league. Jaison told The Playbook that the upcoming season has witnessed a “20% year-on-year growth” in sponsorship money. Given the structure of the league, this is good news for all the stakeholders. While Jaison could not divulge the official number for the revenue-sharing model, he mentioned that “costs and revenues are split equally across stakeholders”. 

Structure

The costs are varied, from spending money on players to building out grassroots infrastructure. Much like IPL, each team is allotted a budget of ₹70 lakh ($84,000) during the auctions. With a minimum base price of ₹2 lakh ($2400), the league has ensured that the players too reap the benefits of the money coming in. Till now, the most expensive player in the league was bought for ₹18 lakh ($22,000).  

Teams are also spending big on building out their foundations by building academies and fostering partnerships with clubs from other countries. For example, the Hyderabad Black Hawks have forged a strategic partnership with the Italian side, Pallavolo Padova. Per the deal, Black Hawks will send their players to Italy for training and will get Padova’s expert coaches to create a coaching certification programme and youth training infrastructure. Similarly, Bengaluru Torpedos has opened its academy in collaboration with the Padukone-Dravid Sports for Excellence. 

 Finalising talent  is perhaps one of the more crucial elements in terms of franchise costs. While the league has a registration portal and scouts for picking out players, franchises are developing their own scouting network as well. Case in point, Hyderabad Black Hawks. The team is organising a volleyball tournament across Telugu-speaking states, with prizes of up to ₹2 lakhs.

Future 

The reality in volleyball is that the game has no federation at the moment, which has serious repercussions. Because of this mess at the federation, volleyball was not included in the National Games 2023. This percolates down to state and district-level games as well. 

Just like any other sport in India, these competitions play a massive role in providing employability for players. Public Sector Undertakings, Armed Forces, and the Railways are major recruiters but require a minimum threshold of playing at competitions. In the absence of such competitions, a league, no matter how well run, can only do so much.

I talked to Joy Bhattacharjya, CEO of the Prime Volleyball League, about this scenario. Bhattacharya agreed that the situation isn’t ideal for players but he also gave me a reason to be optimistic. He told me that work on restarting the federation is ongoing and not to be surprised “… if the FIVB collaborates directly with the Sports Authority of India.” The rise of Prime Volleyball has shown that ultimately, “the game is too big to be derailed by a few small-minded officials.”

On the amusing side of things, I found the ‘South’ dominance of the league (in terms of team owners and the location of franchises) interesting. When prodded to comment on that, Bhattacharya pointed out that the latest entrant to the league is a team from Delhi. He also told me the league has partnered with “a mainstream actor from the Hindi film industry as ambassador.”

Even otherwise, volleyball is thriving in India. Mini leagues have cropped up in states such as Assam and Tamil Nad, with village-level proliferation. These initiatives are supported locally as well as by members of the league. As per Bhattacharya, PVL’s title sponsor Rupay is developing grassroots leagues along with 3-4 franchises. He attributes this massive craze for the game to its ability to “seamlessly move from metros to smaller cities to villages.” 

The benchmark for non-cricketing sports has been set by kabaddi, with volleyball slowly creeping up on it. Will they outshine the boys on the mat? I hope so. My school-going self would’ve liked to see the volleyball court as more than a place to chit-chat. What are your stories with the game? I’d love to hear them in the comments section below.

⚡️Quick Singles

🫱🏽‍🫲🏽🏏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿: Delhi Capitals’ part-owner GMR Group is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire English county club Hampshire, The Telegraph reported. The move could be a prelude to GMR owning a franchise in The Hundred, the ECB’s three-year-old white-ball competition where Hampshire are hosts to Southern Braves. In November, The Times reported that an IPL franchise was looking to buy county club Yorkshire after a £25 million ($32 million) takeover deal by Rajasthan Royals collapsed in September. The county, once captained by the late Aussie great Shane Warner, had a tie-up with the Rajasthan Royals in the early 2010s as part of a multi-club strategy.

⚽💰: Crystal Palace owner Eagle Football Holdings is mulling a sale of its controlling stake of 45% in the Premier League club, according to The Independent. The report added that potential acquirers of Eagle Football’s stake could be seeking a majority ownership of the club, including the 10% owned by Palace chairman Steve Parish. Eagle Football Holdings, a group owned by American businessman John Textor, acquired Palace in 2021. Textor also owns a bunch of other football clubs across Brazil (Botafogo), the US (FC Florida), Belgium (RWD Molenbeek), and France (Olympique Lyonnais).

⛳🐯📴: Golf legend Tiger Woods’ 27-year association with US sportswear giant Nike came to an end. Woods first sported Nike as a 20-year-old in 1996, the year he turned professional, and signed a $40 million five-year-contract. At the time, it was considered one of the most lucrative partnerships in professional sport, with Woods virtually dominating golf over the next decade and a half. Woods is reported to have netted $500 million during his time with Nike, with the sponsorship playing a key role in propelling him to billionaire status.

🚪⚽🇸🇦: Al Ettifaq captain Jordan Henderson is looking to leave the Saudi Pro League less than six months after he switched over from Premier League giant Liverpool. Dutch club Ajax is among the European clubs vying for Henderson’s signature, but his lucrative Saudi salary could become a stumbling block. Henderson’s move to Saudi Arabia was controversial, given his reputation as an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights during his time at Liverpool. Homosexuality is deemed illegal in Saudi Arabia. His return, however, could be expensive, with heavy tax implications for the midfielder.

🇮🇳🏏💰: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has added Reliance-owned soft drinks brand Campa and appliances company Atomberg to its list of official central sponsors for matches played between 2024 and 2026. Campa, acquired by Reliance Consumer Products last year, will have pouring rights in the stadiums hosting BCCI-organised international matches. Campa’s signing by the BCCI comes two weeks after Coca-Cola extended its partnership with the International Cricket Council until 2031.

🎮⬆️: Netflix saw a 180% year-on-year increase in its games being downloaded in 2023, TechCrunch reported, citing SensorTower data. The streaming giant had 81.2 million downloads for its games in 2023, a significant increase from 28.7 million in 2022 and 5.2 million in 2021. Most downloads (53%) surged in the fourth quarter, per the report. Besides extending its TV and movie franchises such as Stranger Things to gaming titles, Netflix also offers a variety of popular games, downloadable on devices. This includes evergreen titles such as Grand Theft Auto, Football Manager (sports) and Storyteller (puzzle).

Weekend reads

After years of American growth, has F1’s US fandom plateaued? [The Athletic]

The world’s most famous soccer club just put its fate in the hands of a cycling guru [The Wall Street Journal]

The European football clubs turning stadiums into cash cows [Financial Times]

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