‘Not the best year for the league or franchises’
- Hall of CPL 2020
Comparing the 2020 Caribbean Premier League to the past seven seasons, this year’s tournament may not be as financially profitable for the tournament and the six franchises.
This is the view of CPL’s Director of Operations, Michael Hall, who appeared on the Mason and Guest show on Tuesday.
Hall said that from an economic stand point it was profitable from the context of housing the CPL in one territory but as part of the holistic picture of the tournament, that was a double-edge dsword.
“That is a double- edge sword. Clearly the cost of the equation we would have eliminated a lot of air travel, we would not have had to move broadcast equipment around to six different countries or two different countries rather because it would normally be two sets of broadcast equipment in the region so on the cost side of the equation you have to bear that in mind,” Hall explained.
He added, “on the revenue side, we had a lot more sponsorship partners but you would appreciate sponsors particularly regional sponsors get bang for their buck by way of fan interaction and activation of their products and services at the venues with fans but with the games being played behind closed doors while folks associated with the tournament, I suspect that the value of those sponsorships would have been reduced.”
He revealed that it was common knowledge that the franchises involved went into the tournament with the expectation that it would not be as financially profitable as previous tournaments but weighed it against maintaining the brand of the tournament.
“I think the league and the six individual franchises went into the tournament this year knowing that it was going to be if not a financial blow, it wasn’t certainly anything to write home about but I think collectively and kudos to the franchise owners, we took a decision that it would be too detrimental to the CPL brand for it to disappear for a year if the tournament wasn’t held…It is a highly competitive environment, professional sports leagues and we felt it was important to maintain the visibility of our brand,” Hall stated.
Hall related that it was too early to give an accurate representation of the financial outturn of the tournament and the individual franchises but maintained he is of the opinion, “it wouldn’t be the best year financially for the league or the franchises.”