The cost of Super Kings’ exile

Chennai Super Kings left the city on Thursday morning for Mohali and the mood was distinctly sombre among the cricket fans here. The Men in Yellow will not play here again this IPL season.

The Cauvery agitation has taken the games away from Chennai.

It is understood that the police told CSK bosses that while it was possible to give foolproof security inside the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, it was difficult to guarantee the safety of the fans, travelling to the venue from different parts of the city, given the violent behaviour of some of the protesters.

The shifting of the remaining six CSK home matches to Pune has also resulted in CSK, the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA), the city hotels and the local vendors suffering significant losses.

To start with, the TNCA, which was to get ₹60 lakh as its fee for staging each match, will lose out on ₹3.60 crore.

CSK’s matches here were sold out. Would the stadium be full for the franchise’s games in Pune?

But then, the capacity at Pune is around 37,000 while the one in Chepauk, with the I, J, K stands still closed, is close to 27,000.

The pricing of tickets could be an issue though. And would all the hospitality boxes, a cash cow, be snapped up? The city’s five-star hotels, where the teams would have been accommodated, have also been left in the lurch.

That is not all. Many vendors offering a variety of services, from managing the hospitality boxes, to catering and running stalls, providing security and looking after the transportation of the players and the officials, have missed out on fat contracts.

CSK director George John said to The Hindu, “The franchise has lost a lot of money. We had spent around ₹60 lakh in redoing the hospitality boxes, close to ₹50 lakh on constructing a stage for the entertainment programmes, and nearly ₹two crore on branding and other Chennai-specific stuff.”

The State Government has been deprived of the entertainment tax and its share of GST for the remaining six games here. As an estimate, on the cheapest ticket of ₹1300, it has lost ₹254 as entertainment tax and ₹142 as its share of the GST.

And take into account the logistics of moving the television crew and the heavy equipment from Chennai to Pune — this will be borne by the IPL — and the damages mount.

Spare a thought too for the hawkers, selling eatables apart from the CSK caps and shirts, often bought in bulk, outside the stadium. Who will account for their losses?