Note: Vikash Kumar is the Head Of Operations, Logistics & HR at GMR Sports. GMR owns the Delhi Capitals, Dubai Capitals and several other teams in multiple sports. This is a guest post in cricexec
The Sports sector has been talking BIG these days about creating a sporting infrastructure. Let us 1st understand that in India what constitutes a sporting infra and dynamics involved alongwith:-
1) The concrete Structure, with or without floodlights (popularly known as STADIUM) Surrounding a ground / indoor hall / group of sporting facilities inclusive or exclusive of gym / pool / sauna / steam etc……In a country now crowded by 1.5 Billion headcounts such structures becoming scarce solely due to space constraints. Metros almost dried up for new facilities and top of it old facilities are badly managed or seek significant effort in transformation post fighting out with all geopolitical & statutory odds, to be termed as a “World Class Infra”. B & C class cities still got a little potential but lack of connectivity & paying potential is hindering such new infrastructure.
2) A Sports Team / Franchisee — Where you just own the playing and commercial rights of close to max 2 dozen human athletes for a max period of 1–4 months and bulk of it gets changed by next season with no control on them once the league Finals happens.
3) New Term Called “High Performance Centres / Excellence Centres” — It can have everything which constitutes point no.1 + additional a good medical and strength and conditioning facility backed by world class trainers, physios, coaches, electronic equipment and group of dedicated professionals who just live to ensure they cultivate world class athletes year on year. Till date not even handful exists in entire South East Asia other than China as its CAPEX & OPEX enormous and ROI negligible. Few backed by few corporates who do it for branding & philanthropy and few backed by government. Till now no substantial data / results to prove their benefit in a country ending up with 1 SILVER & 5 BRONZE in ongoing Paris Olympics despite backing from 1.5 Billion population.
4) Sporting Academies — Mushrooming in every nook & corner of big cities and claiming to produce big talent pipelines in respective games….Bulk of it is only for the cause CRICKET and few rare upcoming for Kabaddi and Track & Field….Offers just One banana and a cup of tea per training session to ensure the diet athletes need. Still confused that tomorrow do they need to make stadium out of the place or give away the place to a warehousing company for a hefty monthly rent producing revenues much higher than fee received from players. They don’t even have money to hire a good coach, trainer and physio to support the guys coming to train in these academies.
5) Sports Medicine Centre — A rare medical facilities specialised in treatment of sportsmen ONLY with specialised and common injuries in each sports. It has hardly gained any ground in last 2 decades and many of regular medical centres / hospitals does treatment in 99% of cases.
6) Sports Management Institutes / Courses / Centres — Many new management centres (business schools / colleges) imparting Sports management courses / training are being opened and sports management courses being opened in existing management colleges including IIMs / ISB / Harvard / Stanford as a separate stream for management graduation degrees. However bulk of it are still unstructured and miles away from practical exposure of sports management requirements. Also hardly any difference to chose or value a sports management professional over an MBA traditional course for sports vertical recruiters. However lots of untapped potential which goes without saying in this specific area of business.
Technically the above areas are ONLY TANGIBLE infrastructure that I can think of now. The beauty is that out of 95% of corporate sector who are into the SPORTS vertical, either doesn’t own any of the above or if they own anything other than sports team / franchisee it is certainly NOT worthwhile to mention beyond the Sports Excellence centres owned by JSW and Ambanis. The irony is whenever any of their representatives when speak on this subject are still and ONLY vocal about one or the other ideas listed above and they FOCUS on that 95% where corporates can’t achieve much in next 5–7 years minimum from hence too unless the demography, geopolitical & statutory all comes together and backs them with open hands and financial backups purely due to sustainability & ROI issue.
Then the question arises- What actually is THE REAL SPORTS Infra which any corporate can boast upon?? What is that they actually hold between 2008 and today working in sports vertical beyond their other businesses in all other sectors?
According to me the last and THE BEST among all these infra which we developed in last one & half decade is: –
7) Sports Sector Professionals / Specialised Human Resource Potential — In 2008 when we started IPL we either had retired sportsmen with ZERO professional acumen or professionals from corporates with ZERO sports understanding. In the initial years few foreign companies from countries having capabilities in EPL / NFL / NBA etc made merry at the cost of lack of Indian expertise — be in sports ops management, logistics ops management, game production, media management, security ops, look & feel, sponsorship raising, brand building, accreditation process management etc. Million of Dollars just siphoned off from India to buy these expertise. It was technically a SHAME in a country flooded with over 1.5 Billion humans to still be deprived of expertise & skill sets in any sector.
There we started accidental & forced cultivation of sporting skillsets by amalgamation of professionals from sporting sectors and corporate sectors with the initial learning & guidance from foreign agencies,
The 1st one to thrown out of window was foreign security agencies like a brand name “Nicholls & Steyn from South Africa” and was fully replaced by Indian and local security agencies. The toughest, last and scariest replacement was IMG and now we proudly became a country who can take on any sporting event with 100% Indian human capital talents. We have broken the jinx that now we can take on EPL / NFL / NBA etc and our Indian talents has already started handling multi-dimensional strategic and operational roles.
There are few corporates who have still kept few human capitals gems from 2008 till now who have seen almost 3–4 cycles of COMPMETE changes between 2008–2024 in sports verticals and ways of working. Kudos to them for creating a legacy.
Unfortunately corporates still NOT VALUING this REAL infrastructural strength, they possess, the way it should have been and dealing with them in following manners forgetting the fact that this is THE MOST RECENT INDUSTRY VERTICAL which gives us longest chance to HOLD PIONEERS & EXPEREINCED with UNIQUE experience beyond qualitative talents:-
1) Lay Offs or Letting them Go — Any organization, treating them as per group’s policies where sports professionals are being treated as human capitals from any other sector of the group companies and are either laid off or letting them go in the name of CHANGE MANAGEMENT which has so far only negatively impacted any sports organization both financially and holistically. Overpopulation is majorly responsible of this “taken of granted” attitude of employers / corporates for the existing human resources.
2) Injection of Leadership Roles from non-sporting background — Again in the name of Organization Development the sports companies are injecting leaders from their traditional setup with no room for sporting talents to lead and grow and hence forced to leave.
3) No Value for Home Grown Talents– This is the biggest mistake corporates are doing specially those into sports sectors from 2008. Anyone part of this sector accidentally from 2008 (I call accidentally coz being part of sports sector from 2008 is mere accident and pure luck by chance as neither anyone aspired for nor anyone thought / dreamt of as a career in sports for himself / herself) has seen numerous cycles of sports industry growth as it consists of a CHANGE from era of ANALOGUE (Print ONLY) to DIGITIZATION (online, social etc); CRICKET to Kabaddi, KHOKHO, Football, Rugby etc; India to UAE, USA, Caribbean, Canada, South Africa, Australia, UK etc; One Corporate One Game to One corporate many & many corporates many structure; change from thought of owning just a tournament to owning complete sports ecosystem; owning of teams in a league to starting and owning a league; a sports body owned league to a corporate or a broadcaster owning a league; etc……This is certainly a unique experience and a new guy or someone joining in middle can never dream of analysing any new prospect with such a vast versatility. Hence the pioneering home grown old talents MUST be preserved, nourished, enriched, flourished and elevated to a leadership role to strengthen the actual infrastructure in possession.
What exactly the sports personal / sports human resource brings in to the organization:-
1) Experience and power of analysis for jobs in hand.
2) Contacts which are conducive and customised to the needs of that specific organization where they are working.
3) Power of liasoning at geopolitical level and at the geographical territory where the organization’s sports business interests are located. For eg. A guy experienced in running a sporting event in Chennai might not be handy for minimum 3–5 years for running sports operations in NCR.
4) Cordial relationship management and long term leverage with all business stakeholders.
5) Good understanding of law of the land.
6) Professional acumen due to sheer experience gained so far and capable of executing sporting projects in any part of the globe in minimum turnaround time.
A good solution, which few of the forward thinking corporates already started to own a tangible (stadium / ground etc) or an intangible asset (like sports team) outside the geographical borders of India and use the home grown sporting talent / human resource to build, manage & operate them to ensure we call owning a sports ecosystem in REAL SENSE.
Fortunate are those corporates who still got pioneers with them (in any sector). Sports sector being new got plethora of opportunities to preserve them till next decade or so ONLY.
Time to identify and realize THE ACTUAL SPORTS INFRASTRUCTURE
Vikash Kumar is the Head Of Operations, Logistics & HR at GMR Sports. GMR owns the Delhi Capitals, Dubai Capitals and several other teams in multiple sports.
