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#3 Unprecedented visibility and viewership
The ISL, in all its purview, has massive, never-seen-before visibility. With India’s entire footballing fraternity of 200+ million fans awaiting the league with bated breath, the sport will, for the first time, be widely watched domestically. This means that Indian players will, for the first time, have millions of eyes monitoring their every move. This is not something an Indian footballer is used to, with I-League turnouts lukewarm, at best. Mohun Bagan, which enjoyed the highest average turnout in the I-League last season saw only 17% of its stadium capacity filling up.
The Indian Super League, on the other hand, is expected to garner spectators in throngs, with many portending full houses. Television coverage too, is much broader, with a whopping 9 channels in India (beat that, cricket!) and Fox Sports telecasting the league abroad.
With much more coverage of the sport, players will gain the recognition they seek and deserve, for the first time in Indian football.
If that’s not good for Indian football, I don’t know what is.
