Gujarat Titans see surge in ticket revenue with world's biggest cricket ground as home venue

Gujarat Titans (GT) scripted history in IPL 2022 as they became the second team to win the tournament in their debut season. The Hardik Pandya-led side beat Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets to clinch the title in their first attempt. 

GT are once again having a phenomenal season in IPL 2023 as they finished on the top of the points table with 20 points and have a chance to enter their second successive final by defeating Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2.

Courtesy of their stupendous performance in the first two seasons, Gujarat enjoy a massive fan following all over India as their followers throng the stadiums wherever they travel to play. Notably, GT’s home ground, the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is the largest cricketing stadium in the world in terms of crowd capacity. 

Since, the ongoing edition of the IPL is being played in the home and away format for the first time after three years, Gujarat have played seven matches at their home and enjoyed plenty of support which has resulted in significant profit coming in terms of ticketing revenue, according to a report in Moneycontrol.

The Narendra Modi Stadium has a capacity of1,32,000, making it the largest cricket stadium in the world and Titans have a chance to play two more matches at their home ground as both the Qualifier 2 and the final are scheduled to take place at Narendra Modi. GT's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Arvinder Singh recently spoke about the revenue generated through ticketing.

“Close to 40 percent has come from ticketing," GT chief operating officer (COO) Arvinder Singh was quoted as saying by Moneycontrol.

Notably, the franchise is owned by CVC Capital, a French private equity firm. On average, IPL franchisees’ earnings include ticket collections, merchandising, food and beverages, accounting for around 20 per cent of their overall revenue.

The Narendra Modi Stadium made its IPL debut in 2022 and, like the ongoing season, the Qualifier 2 and the final were held at the venue. Incidentally, the IPL 2022 final between Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans at the stadium set a Guinness World Record with an attendance of 101,566.

The frenzy among the fans for their home side was evident during their opening game of the 2023 season against Chennai Super Kings as the tickets got sold out within four days of going live. As many as 63,000 tickets were sold online out of the total 75,000 tickets and the remaining were sold offline.

We took many measures to bring more fans to stadiums: Arvinder Singh

"We took many measures to bring more fans to stadiums including increasing the frequency of metros. There are 34 parking areas at the stadium so we ran 100 shuttles from the stadium to the parking lot. Even for hospitality areas we ran golf carts," Singh said.

Furthermore, the GT vs CSK Qualifier 1 match registered the highest-ever concurrent viewership on digital at 2.5 crore, surpassing the previous viewership record of 2.4 crore attained during the CSK versus Royal Challengers Bangalore match on April 17. The high viewership on digital and the phenomenal increase in the value of media rights are resulting in higher growth of franchise revenues.

COO Arvinder Singh further said that Gujarat is currently at number three in terms of revenue among IPL franchises and will strive to keep their fans engaged during the off season as well.

“The team is 38 percent higher than last year in terms of revenue and this year itself we are sitting at number three in terms of revenue (as compared to other nine IPL franchises). We don't want to be a franchise that is relevant four months a year. So in July and August, you will see more developments coming from us," Singh added.