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The inaugural Rugby Premier League will be held from June 15 to 29 at the Mumbai Football Arena, featuring six franchises. GMR Sports CEO aims to leverage IPL experience.
Satyam Trivedi expects Rugby League to be a great success. (Image Credit: Rugby India)
Rugby may not be at the forefront of India’s sports scene, but it has significant potential to capture attention with the upcoming Rugby Premier League (RPL), according to GMR Sports CEO and event promoter Satyam Trivedi.
The inaugural RPL is set to take place from June 15 to 29 at the Mumbai Football Arena in Andheri, featuring six franchises: Delhi Redz, Hyderabad Heroes, Kalinga Black Tigers, Chennai Bulls, Mumbai Dreamers, and Bengaluru Bravehearts.
Trivedi, who has extensive experience managing multiple IPL franchises, including the GMR co-owned Delhi Capitals, explained to PTI the motivation behind the group’s involvement in organising the inaugural Rugby Premier League.
“We thought that we’ve been managing this business for a very long time. And I think of the scale of managing an IPL team, you can imagine is one of the largest properties, and we’ve developed capabilities internally,” Trivedi said.
“So the idea was that, why don’t we leverage our experience, our expertise, and move up the value chain and look at opportunities outside franchise. So when this opportunity came, obviously it started with a franchise conversation.
“But we just took one day to go back and say that not at a franchise level, but we want to invest at a League level,” he recalled when asked about how it all started.
The format will be Rugby 7s, an Olympic sport.
Unlike the traditional Rugby Union format, which features two halves of 40 minutes each with 15 players per side, the 7s format has seven players on the field with two halves of 7 minutes. However, in RPL, considering the TV audience, it has been adjusted to four quarters of four minutes each, with a two-minute break between quarters.
Trivedi highlighted why he believes the league can succeed in the long run.
“It’s a shorter format and we think it works very well. Because if you look at the consumer pattern…They want to look at shorter formats. The attention span has drastically gone down.
“We had to keep that in mind. So we think that this is a great on-ground as well as television product. That’s one reason to hold the league,” he explained.
“Secondly, Rugby India is a great Federation to work with. They are very committed. (Actor) Rahul Bose, who is the president of Rugby India, is also very committed to the development of the sport. Today, there are 250 districts in India where rugby is played,” he added.
Trivedi also provided insight into the earnings of marquee players for the two-week tournament.
“International marquee players coming here for two weeks and one week of camp or maybe 10 days of camp, they would get about USD 15,000
The bridge players (from Tier-2 Rugby Nations) will be getting around USD 5000.”
The Indian players will be paid between Rs 50,000 to Rs 550,000.
“The salary cap was kept at Rs 70 lakh per team,” he informed.
(with PTI inputs)
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