Pitch for a healthy lifestyle :Business Line,

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Infrastructure for sports and outdoor activities in townships give projects a Sporting Edge.

How many large cities offer the choice of open spaces for play or leisure? Asks Mr Gautam Gadgil of Sporting Edge Communities, a sports management company which is tying up with real estate developers to include sports facilities in large township projects.

Where do families spend time together, watch their kids play, lead a healthy lifestyle in cities? That is the void Sporting Edge plans to fill as it targets a presence in 25 cities. Set up by the former Australian cricketer, Steve Waugh, Sporting Edge is talking to developers in the National Capital Region (NCR), Nagpur and Ahmedabad to set up integrated sports infrastructure in residential townships.

TARGETS

The ideal targets are townships of over a 100 acres with over 2,000 houses, he says. The developer creates the physical structure and Sporting Edge provides the expertise across a range of sports.

It is not about creating the next sporting legend but providing a healthy lifestyle for the young, says Mr Gadgil, the India Partner in the venture. Parents are keen on easy access to sports facilities. That is as important as being close to other basic facilities including work, school and healthcare, it is about lifestyle and gives residential projects an edge.

The sports management company will provide end-to-end solution to developers to incorporate sport and leisure-related activities and sports academies in residential townships.

The company has finalised tie-ups with two developers in Pune and Coimbatore for setting up sports infrastructure. Work is on for its first facility in Burdwan — around 110 km from Kolkata — in West Bengal. It had tied up with Kolkata-based Shrachi Group for the facility in February last year.

Mr Gadgil said they are talking with developers in NCR, Nagpur and Ahmedabad region. He declined to reveal the name of the developers with whom the company has finalised deals in Pune and Coimbatore.

SPORTS AND ICONS

Mr Gadgil said the academies will focus on cricket, soccer, tennis, swimming, basketball and fitness activities. The company will also tie up with sports icons that include swimming champion like Ian Thorpe or footballer Lucas Neill to take care of branding for the facilities.

The choice of facilities will depend on the location of the township and the sports popular there, he added. In Burdwan, cricket and soccer academies would be set up side by side.

Mr Gadgil said that the project was finding greater acceptance among tier-2 residents.

While availability of large parcels of land in tier-1 cities is a problem for integrated township projects, middle-class aspirations and the need for higher standards of living is what makes them click in tier-2 cities.

FINANCIAL MODEL

The financial model will be such that these sports academies generate income from residents in the townships as well as the surrounding communities. Sporting Edge will also charge developers for having these facilities in their integrated township projects.

“We have invested substantially in the intellectual property rights and branding elements of the model. We hope to break even within a year of materialisation of the township projects,” Mr Gadgil said. He, however, did not specify the investments put in so far in intellectual property and branding.

According to him, the Pune and Coimbatore projects are expected to materialise by 2013-end while the one in Burdwan will be completed by mid-2013. “The Burdwan project was expected to commence by December 2012. But following minor delays, it is likely to begin by mid-2013,” he said.

The company is also in discussions with a developer in Chennai and a deal is expected to be finalised in two to three weeks, he said.

Mr Mayank Saxena, of the real estate consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle said since people aspire to see their children excel in sports, such projects will definitely find good demand among property buyers.

“The addition of a Steve Waugh or Sachin Tendulkar's name will add value to the projects going forward while people will also be confident of the quality of services offered,” he said.

WIN-WIN

He further added that developers across the country are realising that real estate and sports make a profitable marketing mix. “It is a global concept that is slowly making inroads in India,” he said.

Over the past few years, developers in Pune, Kolkata and Gurgaon have announced sports-based townships that include a Formula One racing track, a full-sized cricket stadium, golf courses and other sporting options that are likely to attract buyers.

Market sources say that Jaypee Group and Supertech Group are some of the companies who have gone ahead with such sporting facility models. Jaypee Group, for instance, built India's first Formula One racing track at its sports city in the NCR.