Being the third most expensive team franchise, Deccan Chargers has cut the flab. The acquisition of players is under tight budget control and marketing costs have been rationalised to keep the focus on brand activities around the catchment areas.

The accelerator is on the revenue side with the company eyeing eight sponsorship deals and a huge upside from ticketing sales.

The company had mandated KPMG to find an investor, but a skid in valuations means those plans are on hold.

In an interview with Indiantelevision.com's Anushree Bhattacharyya, Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures VP-Operations Venkat Reddy talks about the company's plans to create a valuable brand at the time of recession.

Excerpts:

Deccan Chargers had mandated KPMG to find a buyer. Is a buyer elusive due to the turmoil in the financial markets?
The company has no proposal at this stage either to broadbase its equity or to induct venture capitalists or strategic investors. The company believes that the valuations would phenomenally be higher in a year or two when it would be ripe to look at equity restructuring.

Deccan Chargers was the most expensive IPL team franchise after Mumbai and Bangalore, costing $107 million. How have the financials worked out in the inaugural edition of the IPL?
Deccan Chargers reported a nominal surplus of Rs 30 million in the first edition. As far as the team is concerned, the first year did not provide any opportunity to the franchisee as it was too short a notice to do an extensive study of the various players available worldwide. We still have one of the most balanced teams in the IPL and with the induction of Ryan Harris from Australia and Dwayne Smith and Fidel Edwards from West Indies, the team is poised for a great performance during the second edition of the IPL.

There were reports that Deccan Chronicle had not paid its annual franchise fee of $10.7 million to the BCCI. Have you cleared the bill?
It is untrue that we had not paid our annual franchise fee to BCCI. In fact we had raised larger issues relating to Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Hyderabad where the Home League matches were held. Even after one year no improvements to the infrastructure were made by BCCI / HCA. We had asked BCCI to get into the renovation work and complete it before the onset of the Second IPL. After they had got seriously engaged into this work, the franchise fee was paid.

Deccan Chargers has already lost its main sponsor Jaypee Group. Which are the old sponsors you have been able to retain?
We have completely tied up the sponsorship for the current year. It is true that the economic meltdown has kept away several corporates and there has also been a sharp reduction in their offer of sponsorship fees. But we have been able to tie ours up at satisfactory rates.

Do you believe in one or three-year sponsorship deals?
We have opted for one-year deals and are aiming at seven to eight sponsors this year. We have already signed deals with Puma as our sports apparel sponsor, Wrigley's as the official chewing gum and Kingfisher Good Times as good-times partner. We are also in the process of finalising Coca-Cola India as our beverage partner. And we are in discussions with 92.7 Big FM and 91.1 FM Radio City to get either of them on board as our radio partner.

How badly hit are your revenue targets?
They have not been distorted to a great extent because newer areas of sponsorship have been identified. More importantly, we are better organised this year as far as the gate revenues are concerned.

While 88 per cent of our revenues will come from gate collections and sponsorships, the remaining 10-12 per cent will come from merchandising.

Do you plan to decrease ticket prices to pack more audiences into the stadium?
In view of the high level of enthusiasm, we foresee no difficulty in filling up the stadium. The question of reducing ticket prices does not arise, but various schemes are under offer which will allow the cricket enthusiasts to witness all their home league matches.

We have also planned to enhance our spectator experience in the stadium by organising entertainment events before the start of the match.

How do you plan to build your fan base?
We have already launched our Fan Club through tie up with SMS GupShup.

Has the downturn forced you to trim your marketing expense this year or are you just being cautious?
We have rationalised our expenditure in view of the experience of the first IPL. While the last IPL was about brand building, this year we are concentrating on taking the brand to our catchment areas. For that, we have associated with schools and colleges and are also doing BTL activities.

A few franchises have partnered with TV channels in search of cheer leaders. What are your plans?
No, we have no plans for a TV show.

Last year, Deccan Chargers captain VVS Laxman was blamed for the poor performance of the team. Any specific changes this year?
Nobody was individually blamed for the performance. It was a collective failure. We have already appointed Adam Gilchrist as the captain and Rohit Sharma as the vice-captain. We are extremely satisfied with the composition of the team for the second IPL.

After paying too much in the previous edition, were you cautious in acquiring players this year?
We have offered, in our opinion, the correct price for the players whom we have selected. There was no question of any caution.