DLF Drops IPL Title Sponsorship

India’s largest realty firm DLF has decided to end its five-year long association with Indian Premier League (IPL) as the title sponsor by opting out of renewing it’s contract.

The company, however, said it will promote other sports and is currently exploring various such platforms for association. It had last week gifted luxury sports utility vehicle ‘Audi Q5’ to four Olympic medal winners from Haryana.

“We have just stepped off the IPL. Sponsoring IPL over the last five years was a strategic decision wherein we wanted to establish our brand presence across India as the leading real estate player,” DLF Group Executive Director Rajeev Talwar told PTI.

The last date for renewal of the contract was July 28 but the company ventured in the opposite direction.. The firm has the first right of refusal for title sponsorship of the Twenty20 league, Talwar said.

“Our IPO came in 2007, a year before the IPL started. We were very aggressive pan-India then. We had good presence in all big cities,” he said.

DLF is now concentrating on those cities, where the company’s core strength lies, he added.

“Currently we enjoy significant reach, brand recall and presence across the country. We believe that we have been able to achieve the desired objectives to a great extent,” Talwar said, adding that the company would continue to nurture talent through various CSR initiatives undertaken by DLF Foundation.

Talwar said, however, DLF will continue to be very active in promoting sports and encouraging healthy living.

“We are looking out for what is the big platform in the country. We want to promote different sports for a good, clean and healthy living, which we do in our all the townships also,” he added.

When asked if the company has identified any other sports to nurture, he said the firm is assessing what kind of game is emerging in areas where the company has business operations.

“We are not for any franchise and we will not own any team,” Talwar said, adding DLF was also exploring options on joining hands with any federation, academy or government.

Talking about spending on other sports, he said: “There is no limit and we have not earmarked anything, but it will be less than Rs. 50 crore ($898,084) a year that we spent in IPL.”