Difference - ISL faced losses but ESL will not

Difference - ISL faced losses but ESL will not

The launch of ISL, while guaranteed to turn a lot of heads thanks to its strong marketing, still came with a huge financial risk because the money generated just wasn't enough. Every single franchise faced losses, and they carried on with the understanding that this was an collective investment they were making to build a long term future for the league.

Years later, the financial burden remains heavy for many of the clubs, who are still in the red. A few of them have started to talk about it internally, and a few like Bengaluru FC have spoken out publicly. ISL's move towards an open league system is likely to give the clubs who need to cut down on their expenses a chance to do so; and hopefully, increased popularity and a share of the TV revenue will allow the teams to finally become profitable.

However, the ESL is going to be making profits from the first year itself. It features a number of the most popular clubs in the world who already rake in profits. And the numbers for the broadcast deals going around for the tournament are insane. Earlier, streaming platform DAZN was rumoured to be interested with 3.5 billion US dollars on the table. Although the company has issued a statement saying no talks are going on, the rumours persist, and multiple potential broadcasters are likely to be in the mix with equally big offers. With the TV money and shares of other revenue, each participating club will take home significantly more money than they do with any other tournament. Leveraging the popuarity of well-established clubs is going to result in an instant windfall for ESL.

For those who view ESL to be against the spirit of competitive, open football, this is not a good news, as there's no financial incentive for the tournament to change their structure. For the ISL, the need to become more exciting in order to draw in more eyeballs perhaps was a catalyst for their move towards an open league system.