Sports Development In Kerala
The success of sports industry is primarily dependent on few factors:
1) Best in class sports infrastructure
2) Youth level sports development programs
3) Regular competitions
4) Consistent sports performance
5) Increased awareness of sports for community building & healthy living
The above is tightly interconnected thus an integrated approach on the above will result in culture building and the growth of sports business industry with economic benefits.
Sports Infrastructure > There is a tendency to invest in developing sports infrastructure which is great. However, building stadiums across the state won’t result in sports development. The successful outcome of investments in sports infrastructure facilities may be determined by structured sports performance development programs and measurable metrics.
1. Each provincial sport facility infra project must be complemented with long term investments in sports development programs for youth across various sports categories: example — govt can introduce incentivised investments in Football / Athletics / Volleyball / Swimming etc across kids / junior / youth categories. Bring private and state run academies under a common platform, give them incentives to maintain their local playgrounds and organise competitions, track their progress through measurable metrics — example: number of academies / clubs / competitions / state & national representations in each category / sports quota jobs secured etc at each provincial level where investment is made. By bringing existing academies, clubs, schools and colleges into a common platform, local provincial competitions could be organised consistently thus resulting in the development of a sports culture that is desirable by local public.
a) district wise / panchayat wise sports league for team games > home & away system for football / volleyball etc > for schools, colleges, clubs and academies at all levels across various sports categories. This ensures teams travelling, longer cycle of sports events thus resulting in influential culture building in the long run. A simple investment for playground maintenance incentives and a structured professional organising platform that provides best practices and guidance can be introduced. With local sponsorships it will run on its own. Eventually regeneration of teams and competitions will happen, stars will be born and supporters will follow.
(example: Malabar has sevens football culture for decades, but barely produced any football development at national level. such one-off seasonal provincial evens don’t scale. If convert the model into wider state-wide districts, similar to an EPL structure (with junior / youth level teams) and teams travelling across the state on a league game structure > then it becomes a scalable model and results in culture building and performance growth.
Every panchayat should have a sports development scheme to provide responsible budget investments to maintain local playgrounds and incentivise regular training programs and competitions at schools / public grounds / academies / clubs.
2. Sports equipments — Manufacturing, distribution and growth of this sector is dependent on a scalable sports culture. To build a consistent sports culture - good infrastructure, consistent performance and regular sports events are the fundamentals. Consumption of sports goods through various sports development programs and consumption of sports merchandise by public becomes a significant revenue stream.
(example: when blasters performed well, Kochi stadium was full and if the club’s performance continued it would have created a lot of momentum. Also, remember those old Santosh trophy days how stadiums were packed when Kerala performed)
3. Awareness — a) Sports is an entertainment, it becomes appealing to masses when they feel connected, related, attached to it through a team / town / school / college / club / district / local star etc thus has to be orchestrated ino their culture from young.
b) it’s a way of healthy living — sports offers community building, mental and physical health, thus awareness campaigns must be increased.
c) Sports creates economic development — once culture building is in place, a lot of moving parts begins and the growth performance will result in appealing the masses which in turn generates economic development.
4. Sports Media — media and related revenue streams are directly connected to masses. So this is also corresponding to the above points. Once the fundamentals are in place and gradual growth kicks in appealing the masses, media follows it naturally and so does the corporate advertisement revenue streams.
Govt could consider create Kerala sports Mission > as a think tank advisory body > Similar to Kerala Startup Mission, Kerala Sports Mission becomes the body to evaluate all applications, qualify them, guide them, manage and approve them > (and or educate / enable sports associations and councils to do so which will be a mammoth task due to politics and legacy old gangs)
Govt may increase budget for sports:
1) Allocate funds for maintenance of local playgrounds at every panchayat level including for schools and colleges
2) Allocate grants for clubs, academies, schools, colleges to organise regular training & competitions to promote
3) Allocate grants for private entrepreneurs to organise league competitions with private public partnership
Barun Chandran — former national footballer, entrepreneur, sports enthusiast.
