Football in India has "grown by leaps and bounds" but investment is not "matching up to the reality of the Indian Super League's popularity," ISL side Delhi Dynamos Marketing Head Priyanshu Pande said, according to Taruka Srivastav of THE DRUM. The ISL is reportedly the "second most watched league" and is expected to generate Rs 400 crore ($60.1M) in advertising, sponsorships and gate receipts during the '17-18 season, a 25% "jump" over the previous season. Pande said, "Sports sponsorship in India is evolving. Cricket by a long shot remains the preferred choice of marketers to associate their brands with. However, the ticket size of the investment in cricket is quite high, which for a lot of brands gets difficult to cough up. In this regard, ISL is a great option for brands as the sponsorship investment vis-à-vis cricket is quite low. What is a struggle for ISL sponsorship though is extracting the right value for its offering." Pande believes that in the future, football will "capture the hearts of more of India's youth." He added, "Football is the second-most popular sport in India after cricket. And the sport is only growing. ... This for me is the biggest sponsorship pull for ISL" (THE DRUM, 1/4).
