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Fans are the life- blood of any sporting activity. They play an instrumental role in achieving commercial success of a club or a player or a federation or an event organizer. The presence of fans inspires the players to improve their performance. Thus, developing and sustaining fan base is a major responsibility of the stakeholders of sports in any country.
The growth of middle class population in India, with higher disposable income, has already provided an impetus to enhance the passion for sports and other forms of entertainment. A report of Mckinsey Global Institute estimates that the spending of the middle class of this country shall rise from $380 billion in 2008 to $1.5 trillion in 2025. It can be expected that a part of this spending will be directed towards sports. Moreover, the introduction of Cable and Satellite (C&S) television played a pivotal role in providing more exposure to sports. Today, the fans have the opportunity to watch sports events live through their television. Thus, the platform is ready to supply quality sporting experience to the fans in order to generate revenue. However, a disparity could be observed in this demand- supply mechanism. It is, therefore, important to investigate the possible reasons of this disparity and to find the way out.
In India, sports fans exist throughout the country, but the fans of tier II and tier III cities seldom witness major sporting events live in their cities as most of these events are organized in tier I cities. This may create two problems- first, diminishing utility for the sports events in tier I cities and second, shortage of supply in tier II and tier III cities. The trend of diminishing utility is visible in cricket due to which BCCI has decided to organize test matches in smaller cities. Another important aspect in this regard is the limited availability of adequate sporting infrastructure in these smaller cities. Most of the stadiums in these cities lack most basic amenities which may discourage the fans to attend the matches in the stadium. Therefore, it can be suggested that before spreading the sporting events throughout the country, it is important to develop infrastructure in those areas.
If event is a product, athletic prowess is its quality. Thus, to attract fans towards sports, quality of the game should be improved. The performance of the Indian players at the international level is not much impressive. Thus, sustainable effort is required to assist the Indian sportspersons in achieving excellence at the international standard. Success at the international sporting arena and the presence of sporting icons will inspire fans to support their teams or players.
One of the essential steps to engage fans with sporting activities is to provide information. In this era of modern technology, a number of communication tools are available to disseminate information to the fans. However, most of the sports bodies of India take little or no initiative to exploit these mediums of communication. This is indeed a major concern. Thus, the sports bodies of India must play a pro- active role in providing information to the fans so as to engage them in sporting activities.
Another important aspect of creating fan base is to conduct activation programmes at the grass-root level. The sports bodies and the clubs should tie- up with the local schools to create awareness among the children about its activities. Various steps, like organizing coaching camps, visit to the clubs, interactive sessions with the players and officials etc, can be adopted to generate interest.
Fans are the driving force in sports. They play an instrumental role in making sports commercially viable. Thus, creating and nurturing fan base is an essential element for the development of sports in any country. Unfortunately, in India, comprehensive initiatives have not been taken to generate fan base. It can be expected that the stakeholders of sports in India will play an important role in developing a fan base for the long term interest of sports in India.
Ankan Banerjee
Member of Faculty
Naval Tata Centre of Excellence in Sports Management of IISWBM
