One of the biggest reasons behind Indian Premier League’s success in just a short span of time is the huge money involved in it.
The league, arguably the biggest of its kind in the world, is undoubtedly the most significant commercial property of the game. Owned by the richest cricket body in the world, the IPL is head and shoulder above other cricket leagues regarding money.
With its combination of the nation’s love for cricket and being the pioneers of franchise cricket, the IPL’s economic value has grown by leaps and bounds.
The brand value of the cash-rich league in 2017 was 5.3 billion USD, according to Duff & Phelps. According to BCCI, the 2015 IPL season contributed a whopping Rs 11.5 billion (182 millionUSD) to the GDP of the Indian economy.
However, in spite of multi-million dollar and thousands of crore rupee deals, IPL’s riches come nowhere close to football. And the prize money of IPL and the FIFA World Cup makes the difference crystal clear.
The FIFA World Cup 2018 is one of the biggest sporting extravaganzas on the globe, and the money involved in it is just eye-popping.
Way back in 1982 World Cup, the prize money was a whopping Rs 34 crores. Not surprisingly, the figures have only increased in the following tournaments. Well, this year’s World Cup is going to witness even more financial windfalls for the team. The FIFA has already confirmed that there will be a 40 per cent increase in overall distribution of prize money this year as compared to the 2014 World Cup.
In the last edition, winners Germany had pocketed 35 million USD. But, this year the winner will get 38 million USD (Rupees 288 crores approx.). However, the teams who will face group stage exits will be subjected to 8 million USD (Rupees 53 Crores), which would be the same as 2014.
The following diagram shows the performance-based prize money distribution at each stage this year (2018), as compared to the 2014 World Cup:
Coming to the prize money of this year’s IPL, it stands nowhere close to the football World Cup. Chennai Super Kings, the winners, earned Rs 25.8 crores. On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad pocketed Rs 12.9 crore for finishing second.
The prize money involved in cricket World Cup is also meager, as compared to that of football. The winner of the tournament gets Rs 25.17 crore while the runners-up pocket 11.74 crores.