How did franchises recreate home environments abroad?


IPL 2023 Winner

when IPL went abroad, franchises had to get creative to make foreign soil feel like “home.” From player psychology to fan connection, here’s how teams recreated that home vibe in places like UAE and South Africa:

🏠 1. Visual Branding: Make It Look Like Home

  • Stadium Dressing: Teams plastered home colors, slogans, and logos around stadiums

    • Eg: CSK’s yellow & whistles, MI’s blue banners, KKR’s purple flags

  • Custom dugout decor: Personalized team branding around benches, fences, and players’ areas

  • Fan cutouts & digital banners (esp. in 2020) — gave players a familiar look despite empty seats

🧘‍♂️ 2. Player Comfort Zones

  • Teams recreated locker room routines — right down to coffee machines, music playlists, and team rituals

  • Bubble hotels were often decorated with:

    • Team jerseys

    • Motivational slogans

    • Photos of home fans and stadiums

🏨 Eg: RCB recreated Chinnaswamy’s dressing room vibe in their UAE hotel floors

💻 3. Virtual Fan Engagement

  • Digital fan walls (2020): Live Zoom faces of cheering fans during matches

  • Fan messages on social media were displayed inside dressing rooms and player lounges

  • Franchise-specific streams (like MI TV, RCB Insider) kept players connected to fan voices

🎭 4. Culture & Traditions Travelled

  • Pre-match chants, dances, and dressing remained unchanged

  • Players were encouraged to bring their own cultural items (e.g., food spices, prayer setups, even favorite chairs!)

🌍 Eg: DC’s players brought Punjabi dhols for post-win celebrations in UAE

📈 5. Dedicated Zones in Hotels

  • Franchises blocked out entire hotel floors or wings

  • Created “home zones” for:

    • Game strategy sessions

    • Recovery and recreation (PlayStations, board games, lounges)

    • Food that mimicked local Indian cuisine

🍛 Fact: CSK flew in personal chefs to create South Indian-style meals for players

👕 6. Merch & Swag for Team Identity

  • Daily custom jerseys, training kits, and themed outfits kept morale high

  • Personalized merchandise helped players feel rooted in the team identity, even abroad

💬 Summary: Familiarity = Performance

Aspect How It Was Recreated
Visual feel Team colors, logos, slogans in stadiums
Fan energy Virtual walls, messages, digital campaigns
Comfort rituals Custom hotel zones, meals, routines
Identity & unity Merch, chants, dressing room vibes
Emotional support Zoom calls with families & fans, media shows

Want a team-by-team breakdown of how each franchise recreated home abroad? Or a look at how this impacted win percentages in foreign editions?