JOIN USClose encounters of a different kind
The E executive box at Chinnaswamy Stadium has been redone, modified and reinvented to create a corporate lounge. The entire space has been conceived to have a different feel and experience altogether.
Each of the eight boxes that make up the lounge, consisting of 100 seats, have been sold to corporates who have coughed up lakhs of rupees to watch the IPL encounters from the vantage point.
Even the Tuesday encounter between RCB and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), had the corporates turning up in full strength despite it being a week day. Big names such as Prism, Mantri, HP, Herman Miller, Ernst and Young, and 24x7... to name a few have bought blocks of spaces.
Each seat costs nothing less than Rs 2,750 and the boxes are nearly houseful. “We wanted to offer a different experience to our corporate crowd. The lounge has been carefully designed to offer the best atmosphere,” one of the organisers says.
The corporates, who have bought the boxes, say they’ve picked up the tickets for some of their high-end clients. While some corporates have bought 20 to 25 tickets a day to watch the match, some others have booked an entire box for a particular match. A foremost furniture company in the City have picked up 60 tickets per match.
“We will distribute these tickets to our architects and some of our clients. We would like them to watch a match in the best atmosphere possible. Here at the lounge, they can help themselves to a variety of beverages and plenty of food,” says the spokesperson of the company, who didn’t want to be mentioned.
Ajay Sharma, director of Sponsorship Research Service, who has also booked in bulk says, “We wanted our clients to get a feel of good hospitality and the experience of watching a match live. We wanted value for money and also wanted to stay away from all the commotion that come with every match.”
But the people who watched the match from the corporate box have a different story to tell.
While trouble has been taken to create an atmosphere that is conducive for people to drink, eat and enjoy the match, there has been no bar on who enters. What’s largely missing is the decorum.
“It is wonderful to have a festive spirit with all the hooting and cheering but the people who enter the corporate lounge must maintain some amount of discipline and
dignity. The organisers have no control over who the passes are doled out to,” says
a guest.