Glazer family, owners of Man Utd, arrive in UAE for auction of two new IPL teams

With the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) all set to be expanded to 10 teams from eight with the auctions for the two new frnachise scheduled for Monday (October 25), owners of Manchester United – the Glazer family – have already arrived in the UAE to try their luck.

As per reports, it is most likley that the two new frnachises and their owners will be finalised by late afternoon on Monday.

Last week, Glazer family, which owns many sports properties including the famous football club Manchester United and also owns the famous American football club Tampa Bay Buccaneers which features in the National Football League (NFL), had shown interest in owning an IPL franchise as it has picked up the bid documents for the new teams.

The Glazer family had picked up the Invitation to Tender (ITT) document from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the purchase of one of the two new franchises.

Significantly, the deadline for the sale of ITT, the INR 10 lakh document, was on October 10 however, with the Glazer family keen to join the IPL bandwagon, the BCCI had later extended the date for the sale of the new franchise till October 20.

Despite picking up the ITT document, there is no guarantee that the US-based company will make a formal bid for the franchise as it will have to first set up a company in India to do so because the ITT document says that a foreign entity will have to set up a company in India to make a bid.

So far, around 20 parties have bought the ITT document.

Reportedly, the Adani Group, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Hindustan Times Media, Jindal Steel (led by Naveen Jindal), entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala and three private equity players have so far also picked the ITT documents.

Significantly, the Indian board will make massive financial gain from the auction of two new franchises for which, a base price of Rs 2000 crore has been set for each franchise.

As per reports, the BCCI, the country’s apex cricketing body, is expected to get richer by Rs 5,000-7,000 crore after the two new franchises of the lucrative league go under the hammer in Dubai.

The BCCI is not only expected to earn an additional amount of Rs 5,000-7,000 crore by the sale of the two new franchises but will also receive an additional amount of over Rs 450 crore from its share of broadcasting and sponsorship revenues in 2022 as the number of matches in the cash-rich league will rise to 74 next year from the present 60 matches.

The rise in number of matches will be because the number of teams will also go upto to 10 from the current eight.

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.

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.

News Desk

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