By ANUSHREE BHATTACHARYYA
( Indiantelevision.com Team)

(21 February 2009 9:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: GMR Sports, the franchisee for Delhi Daredevils, is eyeing a revenue growth of 20 per cent as it is in advanced talks to add two more sponsors for the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The focus will be on sponsorship and ticketing revenues as the company feels merchandising and other revenue avenues are at their infancy stage.

GMR has already roped in UB and Coca-Cola as sponsors for the IPL which kicks off on 10 April.

"We are targeting a 20 per cent revenue growth in this edition of the IPL. We have got Coca-Cola as our beverage partner and UB as our uniform sponsor. We have space for two more sponsors and expect to close the deals by the middle of March," GMR Sports CEO Amrit Mathur tells Indiantelevision.com.

Sponsors for the inaugural IPL edition Hero-Honda, Religare, adidas and Kingfisher will continue to support Delhi Daredevils during the forthcoming T20 tournament which spreads over 45 matches.

GMR will, however, cut down on its marketing extravaganza. There will be no Bollywood star Akshay Kumar as brand ambassador this time.

Admits Mathur, "We had to create an awareness about the brand last year. We don't need it this year. Besides, Kumar is busy with films during this IPL season. We decided not to replace him as we do not think anybody else would fit into the Delhi Daredevils brand as well as him. We will be reducing our marketing spend this year," says Mathur.

GMR will promote the team franchise through radio and ground activation programmes. Fever 104 FM will stay as its official radio partner, adds Mathur.

Will the downturn have an impact on the ticket pricing? "We may reduce the prices of tickets in some segments while in others there may be an increase," says Mathur.

Delhi Daredevils has also picked up English players Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah at the IPL II auction for $275,000 each.

"We were very clear that we wanted to get Collingwood and Shah to complete our team balance," says Mathur.