Bhai Zakir
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India becomes a factor in US basketball fight
WASHINGTON: Here's the tall and short of the story: India is a midget when it comes to world basketball (ranked No. 58, below Mali and Cape Verde); but it is a giant when it comes to size of market and running a business.
The phenomenal success of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket, the world's second richest sporting league in terms of player payout, has brought the world's richest, America's National Basketball Association (NBA) to India, looking for opportunity to expand its footprint.
It's another matter that cricket-crazed India has no great appetite for or culture of other great sports. The lure of a large market, including television audience, has tickled the fancy of NBA pashas, the chief of whom, NBA Commissioner David Stern, arrived in Mumbai on Monday.
India will have a player in the NBA within five years, Stern boldly predicted to reporters in Mumbai.
What Stern also didn't mention was that while an Indian hoopster going slam-dunk in NBA may still be some years away, NRI tycoons are already muscling into the business side of American basketball.
Stern's visit to India comes against the backdrop of a bid by a consortium led by an Indian tech billionaire, who already co-owns an NBA franchise, to buy a second one -- the Sacramento Kings. And part of the sales pitch of the consortium is the Indian market.
Vivek Ranadive, a Mumbai native who founded the technology company TIBCO, became the first person of Indian origin to own an NBA franchise when he bought into the Golden State Warriors in 2010. Evidently, that has not whetted his appetite.
He is now bidding for Sacramento Kings in a battle that has pitted him against a Seattle group that includes Microsoft honcho Steve Ballmer.
Both sides made a presentation in New York City last week before Stern embarked on his India visit. The NBA Board of Governors will make a call on the matter on April 19.
The politics of sport and its economic impact on cities, which IPL is only now becoming familiar with, is very much part of the battle.
Sacramento Kings' current owners, the Maloof family, agreed to sell 65 per cent stake to Seattle's Ballmer & co for $341 million. If that sale is approved, Kings will move to Seattle and be reborn as the Seattle Supersonics at the start of the 2013-2014 season.
To prevent that, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA All-Star himself, has drafted Ranadive and Co. Both sides have committed millions to build a new arena and attract new fans.
Sports industry pundits say Ballmer and Co are favored to win the bid against the Sacramento consortium, except for one wild card: India.
"Ranadive's recent inclusion not only financially strengthened Sacramento's bid, it introduced a unique and tantalizing element into the equation: the potential presence of an Indian-born owner to put a face on the league's forays into the second-most heavily populated country in the world," writes Sacramento Bee columnist Ailene Voisin, who says Ranadive is giving the NBA Board of Directors "a lot more to think about" than merely Sacramento v Seattle.
Although Stern's India visit was planned months in advance, his presence in the country in the midst of IPL fever will give him a chance to weigh the market and see if NBA can use an Indian-American beachhead to make advances in India.
Who would have thought India would be a factor in a basketball scrap between Sacramento and Seattle? But apparently it is.
Voisin writes. "India is the next NBA frontier."
India becomes a factor in US basketball fight - The Times of India
WASHINGTON: Here's the tall and short of the story: India is a midget when it comes to world basketball (ranked No. 58, below Mali and Cape Verde); but it is a giant when it comes to size of market and running a business.
The phenomenal success of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket, the world's second richest sporting league in terms of player payout, has brought the world's richest, America's National Basketball Association (NBA) to India, looking for opportunity to expand its footprint.
It's another matter that cricket-crazed India has no great appetite for or culture of other great sports. The lure of a large market, including television audience, has tickled the fancy of NBA pashas, the chief of whom, NBA Commissioner David Stern, arrived in Mumbai on Monday.
India will have a player in the NBA within five years, Stern boldly predicted to reporters in Mumbai.
What Stern also didn't mention was that while an Indian hoopster going slam-dunk in NBA may still be some years away, NRI tycoons are already muscling into the business side of American basketball.
Stern's visit to India comes against the backdrop of a bid by a consortium led by an Indian tech billionaire, who already co-owns an NBA franchise, to buy a second one -- the Sacramento Kings. And part of the sales pitch of the consortium is the Indian market.
Vivek Ranadive, a Mumbai native who founded the technology company TIBCO, became the first person of Indian origin to own an NBA franchise when he bought into the Golden State Warriors in 2010. Evidently, that has not whetted his appetite.
He is now bidding for Sacramento Kings in a battle that has pitted him against a Seattle group that includes Microsoft honcho Steve Ballmer.
Both sides made a presentation in New York City last week before Stern embarked on his India visit. The NBA Board of Governors will make a call on the matter on April 19.
The politics of sport and its economic impact on cities, which IPL is only now becoming familiar with, is very much part of the battle.
Sacramento Kings' current owners, the Maloof family, agreed to sell 65 per cent stake to Seattle's Ballmer & co for $341 million. If that sale is approved, Kings will move to Seattle and be reborn as the Seattle Supersonics at the start of the 2013-2014 season.
To prevent that, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA All-Star himself, has drafted Ranadive and Co. Both sides have committed millions to build a new arena and attract new fans.
Sports industry pundits say Ballmer and Co are favored to win the bid against the Sacramento consortium, except for one wild card: India.
"Ranadive's recent inclusion not only financially strengthened Sacramento's bid, it introduced a unique and tantalizing element into the equation: the potential presence of an Indian-born owner to put a face on the league's forays into the second-most heavily populated country in the world," writes Sacramento Bee columnist Ailene Voisin, who says Ranadive is giving the NBA Board of Directors "a lot more to think about" than merely Sacramento v Seattle.
Although Stern's India visit was planned months in advance, his presence in the country in the midst of IPL fever will give him a chance to weigh the market and see if NBA can use an Indian-American beachhead to make advances in India.
Who would have thought India would be a factor in a basketball scrap between Sacramento and Seattle? But apparently it is.
Voisin writes. "India is the next NBA frontier."
India becomes a factor in US basketball fight - The Times of India
