IPL 2023: Starting Playing XI of Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is a franchise cricket team representing the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, and her spouse Jay Mehta. The franchise gained immense popularity due to its association with celebrity owners and icon players like Sourav Ganguly's presence also helped their cause.
KKR in their initial years performed very poorly from 2008- 2010 but later Kolkata qualified for playoffs in 2011 and later even went on to win two IPL trophies under the leadership of Gautam Gambhir in 2012 & 2014. The official theme of KKR is Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo Re (We will perform, fight and win).
Currently, KKR is the second-richest franchise in the league with a net worth of INR 740 Crore.
It is to be noted that KKR earns revenue through media rights, sponsorships, stadium ticket sales, merchandise sales (T-shirts), and prize money they get from the cash-rich league. Here in this article, we will look into the details of the above-mentioned things.
1. Media Rights
BCCI guarantees shares of 40-50% of the media rights revenue to all ten IPL franchises. Among these ten franchises, the biggest percentage of the share goes to the trophy-winning side. Overall, the media rights of the IPL 2023-27 cycle, have been sold for a whopping price of INR 48,390 Crore in total (Television + OTT).
The financial achievement when compared to the 2017-22 cycle has helped KKR to get a huge revenue boost as this deal attracted media attention to make it the second most valuable league in the world.
2. Sponsorship
KKR is reported to earn 20-30% of its income through sponsorship deals. From 2008-14 & 2018-19, Nokia was the principal sponsor of the Kolkata franchise. MPL's logo was also featured on KKR's jersey since it became the successor of Nokia as the principal sponsor.
In 2023, MyFab11 and tyre manufacturing company BKT became the principal sponsor of the franchise. Apart from those two principal sponsors other brands like Lux Cozi, Joy Personal Care, Money9, Jio, Royal Green, and Acko are also associated as sponsors of this team.
3. Stadium ticket sales
KKR owners and the franchise earns a lucrative amount from ticket sales on their home ground Eden Gardens, Kolkata which is recognized as one of the longest grounds in world cricket to accommodate a capacity of 80,000 spectators in that venue.
Apart from tickets, the franchise also sells gate passes and adds some more money to their wallet. Some percentage of the amount generated through ticket collection of IPL games also goes to the BCCI. In IPL 2020-22, KKR owners faced some revenue loss due to the impact of COVID-19 as the home-away format was removed.
4. Merchandise sales
In a cricket-crazy nation like India, the fondness to buy trending products of the franchise such as jersey, caps, shoes, etc. has influenced the trend of introducing an online retail shop for the fans. Sales of merchandise skyrocket every year during the IPL season time and also their team owner has launched an app called Knight Club to strengthen their team's special bond with fans.
5. Prize Money
IPL prize money for each team is considered based on their points table standings and among all sources of income this is the least lucrative one as it involves only a small amount when compared to others. KKR won INR 10 Crore for winning the IPL 2012 trophy and they won INR 15 Crore for winning the IPL 2014 trophy. In IPL 2021, they ended as runners-up and won a total sum of INR 12.5 Crore.
