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Posted: Friday 1 September, 2017 at 5:59 PM

CPL seeing red in 5th season; Florida leg not profitable

CPL’s CEO Damien O’Donohoe
By: Jermine Abel, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ORGANIZERS of the Caribbean Premier League are already reporting that they are expecting a loss this season, even though the tournament is yet to wrap-up.

     

    For every season since its inception in 2013, organizers have been reporting losses despite regional governments shelling out big bucks to host matches, including the the tournament’s week of finals.

    This year is no different, but CPL’s effort to rake-in profits from the United States market had proven to be a challenge.

    In a candid exclusive interview with SKNVibes Sports, CPL’s CEO Damien O’Donohoe made that disclosure while giving an estimated amount to which they fell short.

    “We were close to breakeven last year and probably drop in the region [US] $2 million this year. But we really think and hope that America is going to open us up to bigger money so that we can continue to grow and develop not only CPL, but look at other things like having a women’s CPL – which we would love to have.”

    Continuing to explain their need to expand the game in order to gain more revenue, the CEO noted that is why they have a big focus on the United States market, adding that there is a certain ceiling in the Caribbean and CPL has reached that level.

    Taking into consideration that many of the region’s economies are still recovering, O’Donohoe stated that they are sensitive in terms of what more they could do when it comes to sponsorship in the Caribbean.  

    “And that is why, with the ticket prices, we didn’t want to exclude anyone, so we kept the prices low; and sponsorship is maxed out, TV money is maxed out. So that is why we need to look into new markets, because what we are delivering here is a world class five-star event. Unfortunately, with the local TV money that we get here, it just doesn’t make sense from a financial point of view.”

    Despite that, however, Trinidad and Tobago had out bid a number of other countries to host the finals’ week slated for later this month.

    In terms of America, the CEO indicated that from a marketing point of view, they had made a number of wrong decisions.

    He stressed that “weren’t on the ground enough”.

    This year, organizers had faced huge challenges in the US leg of the tournament, according to O’Donohoe.

    “This year, there were no lights at the stadium and there was a 110-degree heat. So to get people to come out and sport, it was not well attended in Florida in August. So, to have a new sport like cricket to come alone was not easy, but I think ideally, we would like to have a franchise in New York and we would also love to have one in Toronto.”

    Further, he stated that in order to make a buy-in, the tournament needs to enter huge commercial markets such as Toronto and New York.

    However, the two locations have challenges of their own, it was disclosed.

    SKNVibes had asked O’Donohoe about the possibility of having a permanent franchise in both Canada and Florida, to which he singled out the possibility of playing matches in New York and Toronto.

    “That is the plan and focus for CPL at the moment. Unfortunately they have no stadiums there at the moment, so we need the buy-in from the ICC. We have had a number of discussions with them and we are actually going to meet with them, not this weekend but next week, in New York to talk with them about what we can do to develop cricket and franchises as part of the CPL expansion going forward. Because, I think if cricket is to be successful in America, I think the best chance for that is the Caribbean Premier League.”

    But in order to get such a buy-in, the Caribbean Premier League is eyeing the possibility of having prominent retired baseball players to be part of the tournament to attract fans.

    “We can see if we can get some players who would have recently retired – even Derek Jetter -  to come and play T20 cricket, because that would be a great way of opening the eyes of the American baseball fans how much of a better game cricket is than baseball.”

    The Caribbean Premier League continues this evening with the Jamaica Tallawahs taking on the Guyana Amazon Warriors from 21:00hrs in Kingston, Jamaica.
     
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