As the time draws near to bring down the curtain on this season’s IPL, the blitzkrieg and euphoria that otherwise surrounds the game seems to have lost its fizz this time. While the city hosted three IPL matches this season, during which hoteliers saw a jump in the occupancy levels and spurt in restaurant business, the initial excitement soon petered out. According to hoteliers and restaurant owners, this IPL season has been lacklustre overall. There has been a 30 to 40 per cent drop in revenues during the peak IPL season in the food and beverages segment.
Unlike the years before, there were no giant screens set up for live telecast of matches at the city hotels. At another popular restaurant of a hotel, which was running an IPL special offer on food and beverages during match timings, the scene was dull.
“This IPL season has indeed been surprisingly low key as compared to the past few years. We have hardly received any enquiry for IPL match screenings or IPL related offers. I feel IPL has gone for an overkill of the brand,” Ajit Singh Garcha, General Manager of The Park, told The Hindu . At the Dusk at Hotel Palm Beach, which was one of the few hotels to run IPL related offers, the mood was not vibrant.
“We did see cricket fans coming down during the match hours to avail themselves of our offer on beverages. However, we saw a 30 per cent drop in our ,” said Sandeep Reddy, General Manager, Hotel Palm Beach. Cricket enthusiasts feel that a sort of disconnect with the home team could have been the reason behind this. “We don’t have a team that we can call our own,”said an enthusiast Rajesh Mortha, who preferred to follow the updates on social networking sites.