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Dempo: Virat Kohli's addition to FC Goa as co-owner was icing on the cake

The Chairman of the I-League side Dempo claimed ISL franchises must leap out of the red in 4 years time, calls ISL 'a risk worth taking,' but the future is bright...

For the co-owner of a franchise in India's upcoming and now most popular football tournament, the Indian Super League (ISL), owning up to the fact that it represents a somewhat a risky business model is understandably hard to own up to. But waving away all pre-conceptions and hesitations, the owner of I-League side Dempo SC, Shrinivas Dempo, claims that despite the loses inmcurred by him and his co-owners in the first season of the ISL, the business tycoon believes it was a risk 'well taken.'

"At Dempo, we have been running football teams for four decades but there was a point where spending was increasing phenomenally and revenues were just not there. Of course, there was a concern but the family believes this is a sport for the future. When ISL was being talked about, we felt it best to take up something that is offered differently in terms of marketing, quality of football and corporate-backing," revealed a calm Dempo, to the Times of India. 

"It looked like a risk worth taking," added the 46 year-old.  

The team is owned under the umbrella of Goan FC Pvt. Ltd, which is composed of Venugopal Dhoot, Virat Kohli, Dattaraj Salgaocar and Dempo himself. 

Elucidating on the tranquil nature of joint operations between the Salgaocars at FC Goa, who own the I-League side Salgaocar FC - an archrival of Dempo's own team in Goa - the Dempo scion commented, "Dempo and Salgaocar have a long history in football. I have worked with the Salgaocar family in the past on business projects and found working with them extremely smooth. We met informally once and both had the same vision. Once both of us were on board, we needed a strong partner with expertise in marketing. Videocon, with interest in sports, was a good choice and Virat (Kohli) was the icing on the cake." 

Dempo hinted that a vast ISL television and in-stadia audience presence, thanks to which the tournament was voted as the fourth highest attended league in the world in it's first year of existence itself, should ensure the franchises would be able to rise into the profits in four years time, especially after revealing that FC Goa alone lost 32 crores in the last year through operating expenses. 

"The ISL was the fourth-largest viewed league in the world and if television audience grows, people will see merit in sponsoring and aligning with us. May be a foreign team will partner us. The amount of talk that is going on about ISL is phenomenal. I hope over the years, we are able to raise revenues. Beyond four years, with these kind of large budgets, it will be difficult to sustain. But I feel, things will change. This year is challenging because the economic situation is bad but we are still getting leads into sponsors. We hope we will do better this year," calibrated Dempo. 

Speaking of revenues, sponsorships from brands and Indian icons was something Dempo was keen to expound on, stating, "The good news is that we are getting sponsors. In the past, we tried with Dempo and the most successful team in the country could not find a sponsor of Rs 50 lakh. Today that's not the case. You get high-profile people backing you. Varun Dhavan has agreed to back us in season two; we have Virat Kohli as our co-investor and all this will add to our brand. This is what gives me confidence that we can turn the corner."  

The Dempo chairman concluded by expressing his delight at a seemingly well taken risk - so far. "It's a risk and no business comes without risk. For me personally, it's a risk worth taking," said Dempo, adding that the ISL made good business sense.

"It's clear that the ISL is well accepted. For success, the first base is always attendance and we saw how the fans responded. The first year looked promising and the way it's moving ahead, I would say it's a risk that was well taken."