Suggested Premier Hockey League improvements for season II

pkmohanva · Post by **pkmohanva** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:10 pm

1. Is there anything unique to the PHL that cannot be replicated in other leading Indian tournaments?

For example, suppose that the Jawaharlal Nehru Hockey Tournament invites the defending Dutch and/or Australian hockey league champion club for the 2005 edition, and suppose that all the Super League matches get shown live, and suppose that the prize money is increased 10-fold, will this Nehru tournament be similar to the 1-venue, 5-team invitational tournament that was PHL I? Will this tournament in fact be superior, because it played teams as existing units rather then break them up into artificial teams?

2. What are the tournaments that should be part of an Indian hockey Tour? What is the qualification criteria for any new tournament that wishes to join the Tour?

3. Should some tournaments be graded higher than other tournaments in the Indian hockey Tour (e.g. the equivalent of Grand Slams)? What is the qualification criteria for any new or existing tournament that wishes to be a Grand Slam?

4. Should the PHL anchor the Indian hockey Tour (i.e., season-opener or season-ending championship), or should the 5-week (or more) PHL be scheduled anywhere in the middle of the tour depending on the international hockey calendar?

5. The PHL requires that no other hockey activity take place, either domestically or internationally, so that all the top hockey players in India and the world can assemble at one place. Such a scenario can be understood for events such as Olympics, World Cup or Champions Trophy, but as far as the PHL is concerned, it is just one of many leagues in the world.

Therefore, the fact that there were 0 Dutch, 0 German, 0 Australian, 0 Korean, 0 British, 0 Argentine players in PHL I - can this be attributed to the disruptive nature of the all-or-nothing PHL itself? Since the PHL does not define the sport of hockey, unlike say the NBA, will this problem will be faced by the PHL year after year?

6. Instead, can we distribute the foreign component across different tournaments held at different times in the Indian hockey Tour? That way, we can get top foreign clubs, who will play as a team, and who can be scheduled at an appropriate point in their domestic seasons.

7. What were the goals of the PHL - from ESPN's point of view? Can it continue subsidising the PHL year after year? Is there any other league in the world that is so completely underwritten by a television network? Was a weak, financial model the single biggest drawback of PHL I?

8. What are the goals of the PHL - from a potential corporate sponsor's point of view? Can sponsors be attracted based on idealistic goals like growth of hockey or development of talent or raising the profile of the game? Will any sponsor be prepared to take losses and still be part of the PHL? Are the NBA owners primarily sports fans who buy teams for the love of the basketball and the growth of the game, or hard-nosed business people who carefully look at the financial bottom line?

9. PHL I, despite live television coverage on ESPN and aggressive promotional campaign involving film stars and cricketers, managed only 2 sponsors for the 10 teams in the fray (Tier I and Tier II). Therefore, what is the financial basis for the suggestion to have 10 Tier I teams, 10 Tier II teams and 10 Junior teams? Is the PHL's financial model strong enough to attract 30 teams sponsors, when it could attract only 2 sponsors in year I?

10. What is wrong in the following line of thought - In India, it is mainly the universities (at the junior level) and public sector institutions (at the senior level) who are real-world financial entities, with a well-defined line of business or service, and with physical assets like land, buildings and personnel, who can be co-opted to employ players for their hockey teams (which is very important for financial security for the players), build astro-turf fields, sponsor tournaments, employ top coaches, etc.

If the NBA has the Lakers and the NFL has the Cowboys, Indian hockey has Indian Airlines and Punjab & Sindh Bank and Railways. If the US has strong college football and college basketball programs, Indian universities have strong hockey programs (like GNDU, Bombay University, Jamia Millia, etc.), with some univeristies in Punjab having their own artificial turf grounds.

It logically follows that any league or Tour should be built around these entities that are unique to the Indian hockey context. They existed even when there was no PHL, and will continue to exist even if there is a PHL.

Bangalore Hi-Flier is a term dreamed up by marketing personnel and consultants, Air India or Indian Airlines are real-world high flyers with strong, independent, year-round hockey teams, with a huge investment in Indian hockey. Let's plan to our strengths and co-opt these hockey entities, rather than trying to create teams from scratch.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:11 am

1. Is there anything unique to the PHL that cannot be replicated in other leading Indian tournaments?

For example, suppose that the Jawaharlal Nehru Hockey Tournament invites the defending Dutch and/or Australian hockey league champion club for the 2005 edition, and suppose that all the Super League matches get shown live, and suppose that the prize money is increased 10-fold, will this Nehru tournament be similar to the 1-venue, 5-team invitational tournament that was PHL I? Will this tournament in fact be superior, because it played teams as existing units rather then break them up into artificial teams?

The uniqueness of the PHL is the composition of the team - a mixture of the top International and National players living together, training together and playing together. Indian players have to learn how the top hockey players prepare for the matches. There are few “complete Indian players” to serve as good role models. Ideally a 6 to 9 month long season like NBA will provide more opportunities for players to interact and learn from the best but an abbreviated version is better than nothing.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Hockey Tournament has invited teams from many countries in the past but only two teams in 1971 and in 1977 could manage a runner-up finish. It is a good idea to bring more international teams to India to give experience to the Indian players and I hope that the Jawaharlal Nehru Hockey Tournament can attract better international teams in the future. These high caiber matches must be shown live on TV to help make hockey more popular among the masses.

Will this tournament in fact be superior, because it played teams as existing units rather then break them up into artificial teams?

My model of PHL is that it will be played by existing teams and not by “artificial” teams. The only difference is that the PHL teams will have some top international players added to them and the Indian players they replace will move down to the Tier II teams for the duration of the PHL. (Each Tier I team also has a Tier II and Junior team in my concept.)

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:18 am

2. What are the tournaments that should be part of an Indian hockey Tour? What is the qualification criteria for any new tournament that wishes to join the Tour?

I do not know the popularity and capabilities of most Indian hockey tournaments to answer this question. There must be some qualification criteria for all tournaments that will become part of the Tour.

3. Should some tournaments be graded higher than other tournaments in the Indian hockey Tour (e.g. the equivalent of Grand Slams)? What is the qualification criteria for any new or existing tournament that wishes to be a Grand Slam?

The Grand Slam events like Wimbledon, US Open, French Open and Australian Open (in tennis) were accorded the special status because of their history of organizing well-run tournaments, attracting the top players, and giving large prize money. Each tournament will rise and fall based on their performance until certain tournaments may get the special status. This special status must be EARNED and not given away by IHF or government officials.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:20 am

4. Should the PHL anchor the Indian hockey Tour (i.e., season-opener or season-ending championship), or should the 5-week (or more) PHL be scheduled anywhere in the middle of the tour depending on the international hockey calendar?

The PHL must be the crown jewel of the Tour and must be held when it can attract the best players from all over the world.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:23 am

6. Instead, can we distribute the foreign component across different tournaments held at different times in the Indian hockey Tour? That way, we can get top foreign clubs, who will play as a team, and who can be scheduled at an appropriate point in their domestic seasons.

My answer is similar to what I wrote for question #1.

Selected foreign teams must be invited to take part in the various tournaments of the Tour, in addition to the PHL.

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:31 am

PKM, So are we looking at a tour model instead of a league?

At the speed, bhushan is answering the questions

, I will jump to 8..

8. What are the goals of the PHL - from a potential corporate sponsor's point of view? Can sponsors be attracted based on idealistic goals like growth of hockey or development of talent or raising the profile of the game? Will any sponsor be prepared to take losses and still be part of the PHL? Are the NBA owners primarily sports fans who buy teams for the love of the basketball and the growth of the game, or hard-nosed business people who carefully look at the financial bottom line?

I don't think Sponsors can be attracted on altruistic goals.. They are looking for the max bang for their buck... Owners in NBA buy a team as hobby/ fame / games' passion.. When a owner buys an NBA team, he become an household name especially if his team is any good... Mark Cuban's name comes to mind.. He is highly passionate about basketball.. While people like Paul Allen owns a team, becoz he probably doesn't know what to do with the money Bill Gates make for him...... But bottom line is very important for any sports team to survive... NHL (Ice counterpart of field hockey) cancelled their season this year becoz they were incurring losses..

So any league / tour thatz started without taking the bottom line into consideration is likely to be doomed... So private sponsors may be willing to take losses as long as they are reasonable and we can ensure a model that will promise them some profit in the long run.. But without that private sponsors will barely stick around for more than couple of years..

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:31 am

7. What were the goals of the PHL - from ESPN's point of view? Can it continue subsidising the PHL year after year? Is there any other league in the world that is so completely underwritten by a television network? Was a weak, financial model the single biggest drawback of PHL I?

The PHL will be successful when the hockey fans will be attracted to watch them perform in the stadium or on TV. The Tier I teams must play on a "home and away" basis to attract larger crowd for every match.

If the PHL teams will play as a team throughout the year and are financially successful then they will be less dependent on ESPN or another TV network.

Is there any other league in the world that is so completely underwritten by a television network?

The US College football (American) and basketball teams (leagues) make the bulk of money from TV rights. The top college teams get richer and the lowest ranked teams get poorer because the former are always shown on TV and the latter rarely get TV coverage.

For example, my college (American) football team plays about six matches at home every year and over 80,000 paying spectators fill the stadium for the home matches. However, the bulk of the money comes from TV rights, selling sports paraphernalia and donations from the alumni.

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:33 am

I guess my post beat you by a second

, otherwise timing would been perfect

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:39 am

If only I could type faster.

david · Post by **david** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:41 pm

But both are timed 11.01?

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 5:43 am

I lost to Kumar in a photo finish.

Where art thou, David?

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 11:28 pm

If the NBA has the Lakers and the NFL has the Cowboys, Indian hockey has Indian Airlines and Punjab & Sindh Bank and Railways.

If the US has strong college football and college basketball programs, Indian universities have strong hockey programs (like GNDU, Bombay University, Jamia Millia, etc.), with some univeristies in Punjab having their own artificial turf grounds.

The NBA Lakers/NFL Cowboys and Indian Airlines/Punjab Bank/Railways are not similar.

The Lakers and Cowboys are owned by individuals or a group of investors, and are run as private enterprises. The Indian Airlines/Railways are not private "sports" enterprises, and sports plays a small role within those organizations.

Similarly the US college sports programs and the Indian university's sports programs cannot be compared. The annual sports budget of my college team in USA (The University of Oklahoma) is several million dollars and is bigger than the combined budget of most Indian football and hockey teams. The football (American) coach of my college gets about $2.5 million annual salary and each of the assistant coaches get between $100,000 and $500,000 annually (there are over 8 assistant football coaches in the team). My college spent $100 million dollars last year to renovate the athletic facilities.

Some Indian universities have decent hockey programs but they are few in numbers and most of them lack cutting edge technology to improve the performance of the athletes. The Indian hockey and football teams have less equipment and facilities than any ordinary college in USA.

Name recognition is one of the more important aspects of running a successful business. The NBA Lakers or the NFL Dallas Cowboys have great name recognition because they are run as a successful "sports" business. When the team is sold to another owner, the name gets transferred. Will Indian Airlines let the name stay if the team gets sold to another individual, or will Sahara Airlines keep the old name if it buys the team?

Professional sports teams must be run like successful businesses with the main focus being on sports, and it is time for Indian sports to move in that direction. The Indian government owned the majority of enterprises in India and those places were rarely successful. These enterprises became more successful once they went into private hands.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 1:52 am

It logically follows that any league or Tour should be built around these entities that are unique to the Indian hockey context. They existed even when there was no PHL, and will continue to exist even if there is a PHL.

Bangalore Hi-Flier is a term dreamed up by marketing personnel and consultants, Air India or Indian Airlines are real-world high flyers with strong, independent, year-round hockey teams, with a huge investment in Indian hockey. Let's plan to our strengths and co-opt these hockey entities, rather than trying to create teams from scratch.

If this is the ONLY system that will work in India, it is fine with me. But Railways, Indian Airlines, Air India, etc with all their wealth have not provided one outstanding training and playing facility in India. Have anyone of them produced a "complete" world class player out of a 16-year-old player in the last ten years? How many of them are developing talented youngsters in a special program for the juniors or have an alliance with another team to do so? I do not know the answer so I am looking at all of you in India to tell me if my perception is wrong.

Indian hockey is stagnant and is running on methods that are becoming obsolete. It is time to bring a change in Indian hockey. I am not saying that my model is the best one but India must look at all options and find the best method to uplift hockey.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 2:00 am

9. PHL I, despite live television coverage on ESPN and aggressive promotional campaign involving film stars and cricketers, managed only 2 sponsors for the 10 teams in the fray (Tier I and Tier II). Therefore, what is the financial basis for the suggestion to have 10 Tier I teams, 10 Tier II teams and 10 Junior teams? Is the PHL's financial model strong enough to attract 30 teams sponsors, when it could attract only 2 sponsors in year I?

If the input is junk then the output is also junk. Why blame the sponsors when the PHL was not organized properly by IHF. Sponsors will come when there is a good product that can be sold well to the Indian public. One cannot expand to ten teams if there are only 5 good teams. The NBA, NFL (USA), NHL and Major League Baseball expanded gradually and looked at the market forces to guide the expansion.

Professional sports teams have to run like a business. Indian cricket is an example of how a sport can be run successfully in India.

anurag pandey · Post by **anurag pandey** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:57 am

I had written all these down sometime in march put just couldn't find a forum to air these views. Mr Mohan asked me to post these here. Hope to have a lively discussion on these views.

The recently concluded PHL was a great boost for Hockey in India. For this initiative to continue, a long term strategy needs to be chalked out and implemented in order to make the game popular amongst the people and for Indian Hockey to regain its lost glory.

The website, www.bharatiyahockey.org suggests certain means to enhance the League for the coming season. They have proposed a tour format like the ATP or PGA tours, wherein 8 domestic institutional teams like Punjab Police, Indian Airlines etc. and 8 foreign clubs from various countries would take part in 9 tournaments across the country. They believe that institutional teams have historically played hockey and all past great Indian players were from these teams. This is certainly true but the plan suggested by them won’t make fans come out and support the teams. For any sports enthusiast, it does not matter whether Punjab Police wins or Air India, but it would certainly make a difference if the team were Sher-e-Jallandar and the people of Jallandar were watching the game. To craft support for Hockey we must continue to use names of cities and ask people to come out and support their city. I thus feel that the tour system won’t augur well for the future and the existing format is the best option looking at the long term future of hockey in mind.

I feel that India now has the required basic infrastructure to have a full- fledged hockey league. Professional sport has not kicked off yet in India like it has in the US and Europe.
Now is the time when we must look to invest in the game of hockey and try and achieve world-class standards. This venture would require the full cooperation of ESPN-Star Sports, IHF, Sports Ministry and all other stake holders in Indian Hockey including the players and fans.

Step 1: Technical changes for Season 2 and beyond.
Time Duration: To be finalized before start of Season 2.
I believe that for the next season, all the ten teams which participated in the First Season should take part. There should not be any classification and all ten teams should be included in the same division. Each team would be required to play against the other 9 teams once each at home and away. This would mean that each team will have to play 18 games in the season. The games will be played on the weekends. This would mean that we need a minimum of 18 weeks to finish the season. Every weekend will have 5 games. This can be reduced to 2-3 games a week so that the season can span over 36 weeks which is a substantial part of the year. This would result in a home game being played at most once or twice a month.

The league should do away with the concept of Time-Outs and Quarter Breaks; instead the games must be played according to the rules specified by FIH. There are two reasons for this, the first being that the international game of the players may suffer if they get accustomed to so many breaks. And the second reason being that a goal in hockey is scored due to constant pressure applied by a team, with the concept of a time-out this pressure is let up on the defending team.

This is the basic premise on which I have modeled my proposal. The next few pages will try to explain how we can achieve world class standards by playing in a format like this.
Step 2: Popularize the game.
Time Duration: 2-3 seasons.
In modern countries the major forms of entertainment for people are movies, music, television and professional sport (NBA, NHL, NFL in the US and EPL, La Liga, Serie A etc. in Europe). In India, we do not have the concept of professional sport. The only sport that is watched is International Cricket, and the gap between two consecutive International games being hosted by an Indian city is almost 2 to 3 years. Domestic Cricket in India is watched by just a few people. Hence we must promote Hockey as the best form of professional sport entertainment in our country. For any game to survive the most important factor is that there should be people willing to watch the game. So logically the first step for PHL should be to get people to go to the games.

I suggest that in all the cities which will host a PHL team, the marketing focus should be twofold, one on schools and colleges and the other on the adult population.

The NBA stars in the US visit schools and interact with children regularly. A majority of the children in India are absolutely ignorant about the rules of hockey. Urban Indian children rarely ever take to the game of hockey because of this ignorance, and also due to the lack of hockey facilities. Since a team will have only 2 to 3 games in a month a lot of time must be spent by players interacting with school children. PHL road shows should be held in every school in the city and free tickets and other merchandize like Team Jerseys, Hockey-Sticks etc. must be given away at these road shows. The players must interact with the children and must teach them the game of hockey. For college students also similar road shows can be organized. The young generation must be made to feel that it is “Trendy” to go watch a game. Good advertising in all the media including Radio, Newspapers and hoardings can lead to popularity of game.

The next step to popularize the game would be to start Sunday League for schools. Every city can have a separate league for its schools. I’ve read that Delhi for instance has 3 artificial turf grounds and only one is used. The other grounds can be used for this purpose and it can be made mandatory for parents and friends of the school children to come and attend these games. Other side shows can be held along with the main hockey game for that weekend and it can be built up as a happy evening for the family. Celebrity appearances at such places will go a long way to enhance the popularity of the game. For eg: We can ask Sehwag or Tendulkar to come for such events. I’m sure other film personalities will also draw a lot of public.

A different league needs to be set up for college and universities. This league should be organized in such a way that it will identify the best youth players from the respective cities and these players then should be given proper training and should be encouraged to continue playing hockey and make a living out of it.

Marketing the games for adults needs to have a different strategy. The respective PHL teams should appeal to citizens to come out and support the team. Also a nation wide campaign to help rebuild hockey should be undertaken. Under this campaign the general public must be made to understand that their presence at the games will go a long way in resurrecting hockey. Advertising which is emotionally appealing must be used in this context.

On the day of the PHL game side shows must be organized and free tickets and merchandize must be given away to people. For eg: Contests can be held on Hockey Trivia. Celebrities can be roped in to view the home matches of their home cities. This will lead to more crowd support. Once the game gets popular then only we can get into the next phase of PHL getting bigger and better. I feel that this phase of PHL should take 2 to 3 seasons.

Step 3: Ownership of Teams.
Time Duration: 2-4 seasons.
Once considerable fan following is achieved for every club, the next logical step would be to give the ownership of these clubs to someone who is willing to take the responsibility of dealing with all the financial aspects of the club. Due to the large fan following a lot of people will be interested in advertising during PHL. A few large advertisers can be identified and we can ask them to assume ownership of the clubs. I feel this stage will be the hardest for PHL and once it gets through this transition period it will grow handsomely. Investors need to understand that supporting a hockey club will lead to good business, as they can then retain all the prize money from the league, decide on their sponsors, keep all the gate money received from the home games, and also all revenue raised from merchandizing. The club will also decide the pays of players. This will also lead to transfer of players and clubs which have more money will manage to get better players, resulting in a better team, which will lead to better results, increased fan following, growth in revenue due to increase in merchandizing and winning more prize money. This growth in finances can then be used to better the existing infrastructure and setting up of youth academies to nurture young talent.

All football clubs in Europe are actually public limited companies which have share holders and a board of directors. Thus slowly Indian Hockey clubs should try to go public, and have the same structure, as that, which exists in professional sports else where in the world. Clubs should then invest in getting world class infrastructure and training facilities for their players. At this time it should be made mandatory for every club to have a youth system where children are recruited at the age of ten and the club looks after the education and the physical development of the children. People can be sent to Europe to study the youth setups there and then we can suitably adopt those systems here. A lot of study will need to be done to for this phase of the development of the game and a detailed strategy can be evolved later. This phase will need a lot of support from the government too as a lot of people might be apprehensive about spending so much money on the game of Hockey. Tax benefits can be given to people who are willing to start a Hockey club of their own. At this time we should also encourage hockey clubs in other cities of India as well as in Pakistan. It would be great for PHL to have representation from Hockey clubs from great cities like Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Peshawar.

Step 4: PHL goes International.
Time Duration: after 7-10 seasons.

At the time when clubs are beginning to acquire world class infrastructure, the IHF should put in a bid to host the Hockey World Cup in India. The next world cup is in 2006 and by 2010 we might not still have the excellent infrastructure to showcase to the world, so ideally India should look to host the 2014 world cup. During the World Cup large crowds will support the Sub Continent teams and I also expect people to watch the other foreign teams. The Cricket World Cup in 1996 was a tremendous success and worked wonders for the BCCI. The same can be expected for hockey, if we are able to make the game popular by then. During the world cup hockey, scouts can find the best foreign players. These players must then be approached by the top Indian clubs with offers to stay in India and play hockey professionally. I feel that if we get the infrastructure up to International standards by 2014, we can attract the top hockey players to play in the sub-continent. We must project the Sub Continent for Hockey as what Europe is for Football. All great footballers play in Europe and all great Hockey players must play here. This if achieved will again lead to raising of the bar by the Indian players and only the best will be able to survive giving a great core of players to choose from for the national side.

Other Benefits which can be had:
1. Rise in coaching standards.
2. Sports Medicine will get a boost.
3. The Hockey stick/ball making industry will also improve
4. Hockey will be a topic of day to day conversation of the people, hence giving great popularity to the players.
5. Finding talented younger players and giving them an opportunity to be professional sports person.
6. Regaining the Hockey Gold.

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