BCCI set to make massive financial gain by auctioning two new IPL teams

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all set to make massive financial gain from the auction of two new Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises for which, a base price of Rs 2000 crore has been set for each franchise.

After auctioning the two new franchises, the Indian board will be receiving a huge amount of Rs 4,000 crore.

Before the auctions are held, the board has already clarified that any bids below the minimum amount of Rs 2000 crore will be directly rejected and no reduction will be made to the minimum bid amount even in the event of a change in the format of the league.

The condition applies even if the number of matches to be played gets reduced.

After the auction, the cash-rich IPL will feature of 10 teams and a minimum of 74 matches from the next 2022 season and further.

The Indian board will not only be benifitted through the auctioning alone but will also receive a higher fee from Star India, which owns the IPL media rights, for the 2022 season.

Notably, the 2022 season will be the last and final season of the current media rights cycle, which the Star had acquired in 2017 for a period of five years aftre paying Rs 16347.5 crore.

Meanwhile, auction for the next cycle of IPL media rights is also expected to be held in early 2022.

As per the agreement between board and Star India, the board had received Rs 4086.87 crore of the media rights payment in the first year.

An amount of Rs 3065.15 crore was set for the subsequent years.

With the number of matches set to see an increase in IPL 2022, Star will likley have to pay an additional Rs 715.2 crore next year as it pays Rs 51.08 crore per match as per the present deal.

Significantly, six Indian cities, namely – Ahmedabad (Narendra Modi Stadium), Cuttack (Barabati Stadium), Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium), Guwahati (Barsapara Cricket Ground), Indore (Holkar Stadium), Lucknow (Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium) have been shortlisted for the auction.

As per reports, Ahmedabad and Lucknow are the frontrunners for hosting the two new IPL teams.

Ahmedabad’s newly-renovated Narendra Modi Stadium is the biggest stadium while the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow is the second biggest among the six cities, with a seating capacity of 48,798 and 174 hospitality seats.

Gautam Adani of Adani Group and Sanjiv Goenka of the RPSG Group are said to be in the race for buying a team.

Earlier, Goenka had acquired the franchise rights of Pune for two years.

On August 31, the IPL Governing Council had invited bids to acquire the right to own and operate one of the two new teams proposed to be introduced from the 2022 season, through a tender process.

“The detailed terms and conditions governing the submission and evaluation of bids including eligibility requirements, process for submissions of bids, proposed new teams’ rights, and obligations, etc. are contained in the ‘Invitation to Tender’ (“ITT”) which will be made available on receipt of payment of a non-refundable fee of Rs 10 lakh plus any applicable Goods and Services Tax. The ITT will be available for purchase till October 5, 2021,” read a statement issued by Jay Shah, BCCI Secretary.

“Any interested party wishing to submit a bid is required to purchase the ITT. However, only those satisfying the eligibility criteria set out in the ITT and subject to the other terms and conditions set out therein, shall be eligible to bid. It is clarified that merely purchasing this ITT does not entitle any person to bid. BCCI reserves the right to cancel or amend the bidding process at any stage in any manner without providing any reason,” the statement read further.

News Desk

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