Rise of the Pro Kabaddi League from emergence to evolution
Every sport has its history marked by its emergence from a particular culture and age. Traces of football being played were recorded more than 2000 years ago in ancient China, Greece, Rome, and Central America. The mighty sport was transitioned by the British and the Association Football registered recognition in 1863. Children living in woodlands across South-east England created Cricket during the late 16th century. Emergence led to evolution and today, the world’s top most popular spectator sports are Football and Cricket.
Kabaddi, an Indian contact sport that originated back in pre-historic times in the villages across the country is now one of its most popular sports and has earned pride and honor for the democratic nation since. Although Kabaddi was created by the Indians, it could not draw their eyes to its achievements as much as Cricket did. Fortunately, over the past few years, the Pro-Kabaddi League has been planting a garden of popularity around the native sport and giving it its due recognition.
A sport conquers top strength when it decreases the gap between urban and rural. Starting off with 8 franchises owned by different celebrities and businessmen from various metropolitan greats like Mumbai and Delhi, the 2017 edition featured 12 teams including Kabaddi’s traditional friend cities like Lucknow, Sonipat, and Patna. Since its inception in 2014, PKL has become the second most-viewed sports league in the country after the Indian Premier League (IPL). According to Star India, the number of league viewers increased to more than 50% over the first four seasons run. As a result, the last PKL season attracted more than 50 million viewers accounting majorly from states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra, and Tamil Nadu. The market gave a responsive supply to the demand and the league had to be aired in Marathi, Telugu, and Kannada. Through its broadcasting rights, Star India roped in a massive profit of ?70 crores by the end of the 4th edition. Also, the same season accumulated over ?150 crores through advertising revenues. While Season 1 saw no major sponsors, by the time Season 3 rolled out, there were over 68 brands represented across the league and the franchises. The year 2017 saw the first time that the league had a title sponsor with the rights being acquired by Chinese phone manufacturers Vivo for almost ?300 crores. This was the second-highest sponsorship deal in India after the IPL’s title sponsorship.
Courtesy being the Mashal Sports, Charu Sharma, and Star India, one can say the portrayed numbers have proved that introducing the PKL was a blockbuster initiative but this has just been the former days of the sport’s success. Future seasons will hope to take Kabaddi to a different level with the only agenda being Kabaddi not to be valued anything less than any other sport and to promote sports as a whole.