The Rugby Premier League will reduce the timeframe for India's rise in the sport: Rahul Bose

Q. How will that happen specifically for rugby? 

The compression in timeframe is run on two engines. The internal engine is that, immediately after June 29, the day of the RPL final, there will be six franchises sending their scouts across the country to scour the best talents. They will ask themselves what they need in terms of hardware—a stadium, a sports science facility, a physical rehab facility etc, and software—a coach, a strength and conditioning trainer etc, to win next year. This quest will create six thriving ecosystems of rugby that will give a youngster looking to play an easy avenue. 

The external engine is very simple—between 10 million and 50 million people will watch the sport. Already we have sponsors saying we'd like to partner with you on the RPL and we’d also give some money to Rugby India, or vice-versa. An osmosis between the two has already started. I can think of Capgemini, who have sponsored Indian rugby for the last three years and have also come on board for the RPL. 

Q. If these two engines work and the league is successful, you can see how this timeline to take Indian rugby to the top of the world can be shortened considerably. What makes a sports league successful?

By its very nature, with teams and franchises linked to geographies that emanate a sense of tribalism and loyalty, a league lends itself best to a team sport. Branding, valuations etc are all heavily dependent on fan following and league franchises must have a culture and personality that fans will back no matter what. Rugby Sevens ticks that box. 

Second, it has to be incredibly gripping on television. It’s come to a point now where, if you want people to watch a sport, you have about 30 seconds to catch their attention. Rugby Sevens has a score roughly every two minutes, and in between, as broadcasters call it, there’s an event—someone’s getting smashed, someone’s breaking through, what have you. So, the dopamine hit happens with the scores and the thrill lies in between. That’s another box ticked.

Third, is it the best in the world? At that moment, is there anything better in that sport that you can watch on TV? That's a box we were absolutely sure we had to tick and we have—there's no comparable rugby tournament happening anywhere in the world and some of the international players we’ve got are the most famous names in world rugby, including World and Olympic champions, hall of famers, players of the year.  

Q. How have you brought to the RPL some of the success strategies of the other sports leagues in India?

In the last seven years, we've been talking to all the stakeholders of sports leagues in India—be it kabaddi, tennis, football or cricket—looking at financial models, meeting with people in broadcast to see what’s worked and what hasn’t. There's been tremendous learnings, questions and due diligence before we came up with this. For example, 18 years ago, the IPL was given a 45-day window by the ICC where no cricket comparable to the IPL was played—that enabled the best players to come down. That’s the first thing we did. RPL is sanctioned and supported by World Rugby and they have been in conversation with us for two years, going through the processes before giving us a 15-day exclusive window. That set the ball rolling.

But the players didn't come just because there was a window—aside from the where and when, they asked about salaries. World Rugby had advised us how much to pay, and when we quoted that, they agreed.  Finally, they asked about the coaches. This is something we had pre-empted—instead of waiting for the franchises, the league had already signed on six of the top coaches. When we gave them the names, they realised we weren’t messing around. 

Q. India is not known to be a rugby powerhouse. What convinced World Rugby to give you an exclusive window? 

Primarily, the intellect, hard work and passion that the Rugby India board showed. There was a lot of thinking behind how it was going to play out. You have to ask World Rugby what specifically convinced them, but I can only imagine that, because it was so methodically thought-out and conceived with an absolute unwillingness to compromise on quality that we got the go-ahead. 

They had an 81-factor inspection of the ground and the stadium, and we got a green light on 80. We had the amber light only on the fact that we didn’t have a fan zone.  

I also believe that India is going to be the market for sport that everybody wants to be in. Rugby has got no traction here. So what a great market for the world body and the Asian body to get into. I think it's a no-brainer for them to say if this is rugby taking off in India, we are going to back it. 

Q. What is the financial model you have adopted for the league? How does the league become financially sustainable over the long term?

We haven't reinvented a model—it’s like any other league in India—we’ve only rationalised the pieces to a point where the costs are reduced without even a 1 percent drop in quality. For example, we are not travelling to six cities and spending huge amounts for no reason—our format of two games a day of 20 minutes each doesn’t require that. This is a franchise model where teams pay a franchise fee. What we do have in this league—and I am not going to mention numbers here—is that we’re giving back a minimum guarantee money to the franchises in the first year itself.

I’ve seen some league projections and I’ve been astounded by how exaggerated those returns are. We’ve decided we are not going to dress up the truth. You’re dealing with multi-millionaires here, they are not going to fall for some fancy balance sheets. 

As a federation, we're hardly making any money from the RPL—I can guarantee it's a fraction of what we raise as a federation. We are doing this just for Indian rugby. So why would we put ourselves under pressure for unrealistic valuations? There will be returns, there will be increased valuations, and if the game is as hypnotic as I believe it is, there is money to be made for everybody. But I'm sure the team owners know that they have to be patient and back the sport. 

Q. What sort of sponsorship interest have you seen? 

We have 13 sponsors that include companies like Hero Fincorp, JSW Cement, Amul, Bisleri, Capgemini. GMR has come as title sponsors and it isn’t just because GMR Sports, its group company, is the organising and the marketing partner of the league. 

Q. One of the biggest revenue-earners for a sports league is media rights. How did you close the deal with JioHotstar and Star Sports? 

It’s a big fillip for the league. They came to the Hong Kong Sevens to watch the game. I didn't have to tell them anything, but after watching three games spanning about an hour, they themselves said the sport is so easy to understand and that it’s perfect for today’s attention spans. It’s the game that got them; it’s not like GMR or Rugby India can sell anything to a broadcaster beyond a point. 

Q. What sort of value have the media rights brought?

I can’t share that. But I can tell you this—the figures are low because rugby players globally are the lowest-paid elite athletes. Which is why when you ask about the economics of the league, I can assure you it's extremely insignificant, comparable or less than the numbers for leagues like kabaddi or kho-kho etc. But what is interesting here is the minimum guarantee—we have taken it upon ourselves to raise X amount of money through sponsorships, of which the six teams will get a healthy share.

Q. Every sport in India fights the battle to be No. 2, after cricket. It’s a very crowded space. Where does rugby figure in that?

It’s not crowded at all. People just don’t work hard enough. Listen to the sponsors, listen to broadcasters, listen to other stakeholders who tell us that nobody has ever talked to them like we have. We were awarded the best federation in the country (development) a few months ago by Ficci not because we won the world championship, but because enshrined in Rugby India are truth, accountability, transparency and ethics. My five-year vision for the RPL is that every child who’s thinking of a career in sport should put rugby in their top five. 

Q. Do you plan to start a women’s league too? 

I wish there was one right now, because women in rugby are better than the men in the international set-up—they are ranked 10th in Asia compared to 15th for men. In the bones of Rugby India is gender justice and gender equality. And I take no credit for this. For the last 20 years, every single championship for men and women has been done at the same time with the same facilities, so when it comes to the women’s league the only thing that stops us is economic considerations—you need six more teams at a time your team owners have just taken on a new sport. To get sponsorships for that is a challenge because nobody yet knows the sport much. I would think to myself that there can be a women’s edition in Season 2 or 3, but no decision in Rugby India is unilateral, so the governing council and the team owners will take a call eventually. We already have three owners interested in a women’s team, so a women’s league is inevitable.