Opinion The hosts dividend
Hosting events like the hockey World Cup has many positive ripple effects....
The Hero Honda Hockey World Cup couldnt have had a more auspicious start than an engrossing encounter between India and Pakistan,with the host country emerging triumphant while capturing the nations imagination. While the elation has been somewhat tempered by the subsequent losses to Australia and Spain,the fact remains that for the first time in recent memory there is widespread interest in a sports event that doesnt involve cricket.
The staging of the hockey World Cup is in many ways a seminal moment in Indian sports,as much on its own merit as on the fact that it is kick-starting the most eventful and active window ever for sports on Indian soil. Seen by many as the curtain-raiser for IPL-III,the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG),and eventually the Cricket World Cup,it is imperative that at the very least this event be a moderate success,so as to feed the belief that the sports industry in India is on the cusp of exponential growth. And the only way sports can grow exponentially is by staging events of this magnitude in India,on a somewhat regular basis.
The event itself is merely the tip of the iceberg. Ripple effects
extend to the popularising of the sport,generating interest in it from an investment and marketing standpoint,and,of course,significant improvement in the skills and performance levels of local talent.
A case in point is the build-up around the CWG 2010. While the games themselves are the focus of the public,it is the pre-games and post-games phases that will be crucial in determining success in the long term. Prior to the games,there has been a concerted effort on the part of the organising committee and individual sports federations to improve the levels of training and competition of Indian athletes. Funding and knowledge have been injected into sports and sportspersons,and this will have a positive long-term effect on their quality and performance levels.
Similarly,during the pre-games phase,the large investment in infrastructure will further boost the quality of training and competition facilities,making India a coveted venue for events in various sports while also ensuring that Indian athletes are forces to be reckoned with. The world-class facilities that Delhi will soon have will also enable individual sports bodies or private players to organise and host world-class events in sports such as basketball,tennis,swimming,soccer,and of course hockey,during the post-games phase.
The benefit of hosting large-scale sports events in India is that it will increase the overall awareness of the sport,its athletes,and its potential from a fans perspective,or from a business/ value creation perspective. Additionally,the staging of an event locally increases the ability of the public to participate in not only the event itself,but also in the sport. It is this participation that helps expand fan bases.
The hockey World Cup is a good example. Hockey is a sport that has been languishing in virtual ignominy for the past decade or so,much to the chagrin of the loyalists and purists who felt that the national sport of India was being treated shabbily,at best. The Indian team itself has been performing poorly,to the extent that India,once the perennial gold-medal favourite at the Olympics,is now ranked 12th,behind even Canada. None of this however has mattered much for the World Cup,which has managed to generate significant interest to the extent that the India-Pakistan match created nearly as much buzz as an ODI at Ferozeshah Kotla would. If India were to improve significantly and compete with the top nations once more,a sustainable surge in hockeys popularity in India is well within the realm of possibilities that one can envision.
Simply put,events hosted locally are bound to increase the popularity of any sport in India. This could be due to the creation of an environment where the audience can feel and live the experience,or because of the collateral activities surrounding the event,or even triggered due to the media coverage that helps the audiences familiarise themselves with the sport and its athletes.
The IPL is a case in point of live matches taking over the imagination of the audiences,to the extent that international fixtures no longer have the allure they once did,as opposed to actually watching a match in ones home stadium. Beyond just the creation of the fan-base however,it is imperative to understand that the events also trigger investment in human capital (training of athletes),and investment in the sport itself,be it via infrastructure or marketing initiatives. Hopefully,the hockey World Cup will open the floodgates for an era where live international events are the norm rather than the once in a blue moon exception.
The writer is a Delhi-based sports attorney
express@expressindia.com
Share
