IPL bids: RPSG bags Lucknow for Rs 7,090 cr; CVC bags Ahmedabad for Rs 5,625 cr

The auction of two new India Premier League teams has fetched the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Rs 12,715 crore. RPSG Group has picked Lucknow as their home base with a winning bid of Rs 7090 crore, while Irelia Company Pte Ltd (CVC Capital Partners) has won Ahmedabad for Rs 5,625 crore.

The Governing Council of the IPL had issued an Invitation to Tender to acquire the right to own and operate two new franchises. Pursuant to the tender process, various interested parties submitted their bids for the new franchises. The bids were submitted by the authorised representatives of the interested parties at Dubai yesterday (October 25, 2021).

A total of 10 parties had entered the fray with bids to own the two franchises on Monday (October 25) at the Taj Dubai. Glazer Family, owners of football club Manchester United, and Adani Group were among others to have placed bids to acquire an IPL team. The bidders also got to choose from six centres – Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Cuttack, Dharamsala, Guwahati and Indore – to base their team in.

All parties were asked to submit two envelopes – one for personal and financial credentials and the second for the bid. BCCI had its legal and audit officials first check the credentials of the bidders and only after they were deemed to be in order, were the second envelopes containing the bids opened.

The new franchises will participate in IPL from 2022 season onwards subject to the bidders completing the post-bid formalities as specified in the ITT document. The IPL 2022 season will comprise 10 teams and will have 74 matches, wherein each team will play 7 home and 7 away matches.

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly commented, “The BCCI is happy to welcome two new teams from the next season of the Indian Premier League. I would like to congratulate RPSG Ventures Ltd and Irelia Company Pte Ltd for being the successful bidders. The IPL will now go to two new cities in India – viz. in Lucknow and Ahmedabad. It is heartening to see the inclusion of two new teams at such a high valuation, and it reiterates the cricketing and financial strength of our cricket ecosystem. True to IPL’s motto of ‘Where Talent Meets Opportunity’, the inclusion of two new teams will bring more domestic cricketers from our country to the global stage. The ITT process included two interested bidders from outside of India, which strongly emphasises the global appeal of the IPL as a sports property. The IPL is proving to be a wonderful instrument in globalising the game of cricket. I am keenly looking forward to IPL 2022.”

After winning the bid for Lucknow, Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, said that very careful planning and computation was done for the bidding. He thanked his personal staff and team who really worked hard to be victorious and win the bid.

Post the wins, the details for building the franchisee will be worked out to get the best professional teams and players by both the franchises. According to Duff & Phelps’ IPL Brand Valuation Report, the overall valuation of the IPL ecosystem stood at Rs 45,800 crore in 2020, down from Rs 47,500 crore in 2019. It will be interesting to observe how brands will engage with IPL after the entry of two new teams next year, as the second leg of IPL 2021 also saw a dip in overall viewership.

While the second leg of IPL 2021 was held in the UAE due to the pandemic, in all probability IPL 2022 will return to home base of India, should the positive conditions continue to prevail. This will surely bring back the crowds, viewership and advertisers in greater droves. Moreover, it will be interesting to see how aggressively the two new IPL franchises pick their respective teams.