The fourth edition of the league will be held from July 13 to 30 in Pune’s Balewadi Sports Complex. It is coming back after a hiatus of over three years. The previous edition was held in July-August 2019.
“We will expand the league, it is a question of time. We have many more people who are willing to invest in UTT,” Dani, who is acousin of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and wife of Jalaj Dani, told ET.
She said UTT’s low-cost model makes it an attractive investment for companies and individuals who are interested in the business of sports. She also stated that the end goal of the UTT stakeholders is not profit-making but popularising table tennis and helping the players to make a career out of it.
In 2017, Dani and Bajaj had earmarked ?100 crore for investment in the league over the next 10 years.
“UTT by the end of this fiscal year would have invested ?75 crore since its inception, though our projection was to spend ?100 crore in 10 years. With our grassroots support, we will be in-vesting this amount in 7-8 years only,” Dani noted.
UTT has seen a couple of changes in franchise ownership, with Chennai Lions getting new owners, Dr Karishma Yadav and advocate Harini Yadav. The franchise was earlier co-owned by filmstar Rajinikanth’s daughter Aishwarya R and entrepreneur Sameer Bharat Ram.
The RP-SG Mavericks Kolkata, which is co-owned by RP-SG Group chairman Sanjiv Goenka and Utsav Parekh, has backed out of the league.
Bengaluru Smashers, which is owned by Pune-based entrepreneur and filmmaker Punit Balan, has joined the league as the sixth team following the exit of the RP-SG Mavericks. “They (RP-SG Group) didn’t have the bandwidth to run this franchise because they have already invested in cricket and football,” said Dani about the Kolkata franchise’s exit.
On the change of ownership of the Chennai Lions, she said that the fact that new owners have come on board shows the strength of the UTT. “Change of hands is also fine. I would be worried if people had dropped out and there were no takers,” she noted.
Other franchises in the league include Dabang Delhi Table Tennis (DOIT Sports Management), Goa Challengers (Shrinivas Dempo), Puneri Paltan TTC (Insurekot Sports) and U Mumba TT (Ronnie Screwvala).
Viacom18 has bagged the mediarights for the league, replacing Disney Star, which had signed a multi-year deal. The league will be telecast on Sports18 and livestreamed on JioCinema.
“Our deal with Disney Star expired during the pandemic. We have signed a one-year deal with Viacom18. We want them to see the value of the property,” Dani stated.
UTT had an average TV viewership of 20 million in the first three seasons. The league had witnessed 38 million video views on its social media channels. UTT has also signed up Dafa News, Stiga, Bisleri, Ruby Hall Clinic and Nivia as sponsors, even as the search for a title sponsor is on. UTT is also planning to launch a metaverse initiative to win new fans.
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