With the Knight Riders failing to make any impact in the inaugural IPL, sports enthusiasts in Kolkata seem to have fallen back on the world's most popular sport, football.
Kolkata-based real estate major Bengal Peerless Housing Development Co Ltd, which is hosting Oliver Kahn's farewell match versus Mohun Bagan in Kolkata's Salt Lake stadium, has already earned close to Rs 2.5 crore from ticket sales so far, while Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment, the company which owns Knight Riders, will rake in only a few thousand rupees from ticket sales of Knight Rider's last home match in Eden Gardens on May 25.
To be fair though, the first match in Eden Gardens sold tickets worth Rs 4 crore.
Bengal Peerless would host F C Bayern Munich, the Germany-based football club, to play a friendly match against Mohan Bagan Athletic Club, the oldest club in Asia, in Kolkata on May 27.
According to K S Bagchi, managing director of Bengal Peerless and Bayern's host in India, said, "We are spending close to Rs 8 crore to bring Bayern Munich to Kolkata for the match. We will spend another Rs 1 crore in hotel and other expenses for the team. This is still a lot less money that Bayern Munich has asked for keeping in mind the Munich and Peerless business tie-up."
The business tie-up entails Bayern Munich setting up a souvenir store inside Peerless Housing's shopping mall in Rajarhat.
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Bengal Peerless is the chief sponsor and host for the Bayern Munich match on May 27.
Other sponsors include Pepsi, ITC Sonar, Red FM, Selvel, Wagon R.
The match will be staged at the Salt Lake stadium, the second-biggest arena in the world, in front of a crowd likely to be at or near the 1,20,000 capacity.
Tickets for Oliver Kahn's farewell match at the Salt Lake stadium are priced between Rs 20 and Rs 5,000, and with only one day to go, more than 70,000 tickets have already been sold out.
The squad consists of 18 players, 10 of them from Bayern's first-choice eleven. Jose Roberto, Andreas Ottl, Jan Schlaudraff, Jose Ernesto Sosa, Michael Rensing, Bernerd Dreher, Christian Lell, Toni Kroos and, of course, Oliver Kahn are the first team players. The rest are U-18 players.
Kahn will be presented with a memento, prepared by the Mumbai-based Gitanjali Group. The piece comprises 8,640 diamonds placed on a pure gold socket, prepared for Rs 25 lakh.
"Going forward, F C Bayern Munich will also train some of our football players in Kolkata. It may even take some of our players overseas for training," Bagchi added.
According to Martin Haegele, head of international affairs, F C Bayern Munich, the Bayern stars will undertake a range of other activities away from the field of play.
"We want to contribute to the development of the game and build partnerships over and above the friendly character of the match," pointed out Haegele.
One plan is to hold training sessions for kids and youths together with the stars, led by Ottmar Hitzfeld and Michael Henke.
Exceptionally talented youngsters may be invited to the FC Bayern Football School in Rust for further skills training supervised by qualified coaches.