Arup Soans — sports business, India & global

I help sports organisations fill seats, keep sponsors and build audiences that outlast a single season.

I led marketing for the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 — 1.3 million spectators, still the best-attended edition in the tournament’s history. Today I run INSMA, manage Goa Guardians in the Prime Volleyball League, and build ventures across sports media, education and careers.

1.3mSpectators at the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 — the best-attended edition in the tournament's history.
60,000Seats sold in 48 hours for the opening weekend, in a country with no ticketing habit for football.
81Long-form interviews with sports industry leaders published free on KiteTalks.
18 yrsIn the business of sport — federations, leagues, teams, events and education.

What I do

Three ways to work with me. Each one is scoped up front and ends with something you can act on, not a deck that sits in a folder.

Full details on the consulting page →

01

Commercial Audit

Two weeks. I go through your ticketing, sponsorship and audience data and hand back a written plan: what to stop, what to price differently, and what to sell next.

02

Event Commercial Lead

I run the commercial side of a tournament or a season — sponsor sales and servicing, ticketing strategy, match-day revenue, and the team that delivers it.

03

Advisory Retainer

Monthly access for founders, federations and teams building something new in sport. Strategy when you need it, introductions when they help.

WORKED WITH

AS FEATURED IN

Arup Soans
Who I am

Eighteen years on the commercial side of sport

I started in ticketing and ended up running the commercial side of tournaments. The FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 — 60,000 seats sold in the first 48 hours, 1.3 million spectators by the final — is still the work people ask me about.

Today I am CEO of INSMA, the Indian Sport Management Association, General Manager of Goa Guardians in the Prime Volleyball League, and I teach and interview across the industry: NYU, Jio Institute, Rajasthan Royals, and 81 episodes of KiteTalks.

More about me →

Writing

Notes from inside the business of sport — what actually filled the seats, what the numbers looked like afterwards, and what I would do differently.

November 1, 2018
To end this series, I’m going to touch upon few areas and stories that go along with them and in retrospect fit in to what author of Good to Great ...
October 17, 2018
6 venues, 52 matches and just over 1.4 million seats to be filled across 16 match-days. We always knew India has the numbers but does India have the football audience...

Working on something commercial in sport?

Tell me what you are trying to sell, fill or fix. Thirty minutes, no pitch. If I am not the right person for it, I will say so and point you to someone who is.