Team owners ahead of delivery curve:

For this year, the average expenditure per franchisee, according to Indian television.com calculations, was $ 17.5 million (the least being Jaipur's Rajasthan Royals at $ 15 million and the most being liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya's Bangalore Royal Challengers at $ 20 million). Considering that most team owners began this exercise factoring in the possibility of having to take a hit of anywhere between $ 3-7.5 million hit in Year 1, all of them (bar one) would be more than satisfied with what they have managed and the response the IPL has garnered thus far.

As of now, and depending on who you talk to, it is either Kolkata or Chennai that have likely hit break-even.

Kolkata was far and away the best managed as far as brand associations and merchandise sales were concerned but it was Chennai that was the most successful in terms of gate receipts.

Breaking down the numbers, GroupM ESP (consultants for Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers) managing partner Hiren Pandit states: "The franchises have received around $ 7.5 million from central revenues. In terms of local revenues (prize money, local sponsorship, gate receipts) Kolkata would have earned the most at $ 11 million while Punjab would have got the least at $ 5 million. Where Kolkata did really well was in sponsorship where it got $ 7 million.

"Bangalore would not have made much here as the UB Group was using it to push their own brands. In terms of losses I estimate that Bangalore lost around $ 10 million." This loss, Pandit, is quick to point out, needs to be weighed against the kind of brand activation opportunities that will be available to the UB Group, going forward.

As for the smaller teams like Punjab and Jaipur, they would have struggled the most on both brand associations as well as gate receipts (as their grounds are small).

Public are loving it:

The response in the stadia was what no one was sure about, but by all accounts it has proved a big hit all across, even in the smaller centres.

Interestingly, it was Mumbai that had to go the furthest in its efforts to attract crowds. Why is that? Because Mumbaiites are the most spoilt for choice, in terms of avenues for entertainment. Additionally, commute times are the longest in Mumbai so for potential ticket buyers, logistics also plays a big part.

A stadium like Hyderabad on the other hand, gets to host a One Day International once in two years, if it is lucky. The IPL more than anything else is offering access to a whole new form of entertainment and the public is lapping it up.

What will clearly not work for any team though, is the traveling fan concept. Home games means just that - home games. India's geography simply does not allow for fans to travel with their teams.

The Future:

So what next for the IPL? Where does it go from here? At this stage it is all more talk than concrete plans but the intention is clearly to take the IPL global.

IPL governing council member IS Bindra, has been quoted as saying that the IPL is just the first step of a "grand vision" that will eventually lead to the birth of a network of similar franchise-based models across the major cricket-playing nations. That is something that WSG South Asia CEO Venu Nair endorses wholeheartedly. Going forward, Nair is in favour of cricket going the soccer route. In soccer, leagues are more important than countries. "Cricket should follow the same route to survive. At the moment you have some events like the Champions Trophy, which are useless."

"You could (instead) have a World Cup preferably in the T20 format once in four years. The rest of the time league cricket could be played in different countries. What this would mean though is that other countries would have to set up strong leagues of their own. This would ensure that all the boards make money, which could then be used for the development of the game.. At the same time players would benefit, as financially there would be no need for most of them to play for more than five years. The current theory that one needs a 15 year career is outmoded. The ICC's role would still be to govern the game. Nobody loses out."

An issue that franchisees will have to look at is to build loyalty among fans for a set of players. Another key thing for franchisees is gate receipts. Nair feels that more attention has to be paid to premium seating. "Abroad premium seating accounts for 40 per cent of gate revenue. At the moment though, only Chennai, Jaipur and Punjab have adequate facilities for premium seating. The rest of the franchisees will have to invest in this along with the state associations. The lack of adequate facilities and a high quality experience for those in the premium seating area is why Reliance reduced prices for the semi finals in Mumbai."

In conclusion, whatever may be the postmortems different agencies engage in now that the event is done and dusted, it would be difficult to argue that any of the parties that chose to be associated with the event did not get more than their money's worth.

(Graphics and design by Kavita Sangoi)

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Indiantelevision.com's interview with GroupM ESP managing partner Hiren Pandit