Franchise bids for the Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL) were won by diverse personalities such as film actor Shah Rukh Khan and industrialists Mr Mukesh Ambani and Mr Vijay Mallya. IPL, promoted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said the bids amounted to $723.6 million (over Rs 2,800 crore). Each bid to own teams in any of eight of the 12 cities where the T20 matches will be played.
The highest winning bid, at $111.9 million, was made by Mr Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, who got the Mumbai rights. On his heels came the UB Group, headed by Mr Vijay Mallya who won the bid for his home city, Bangalore, at $111.6 million.
Deccan Chronicle bagged the rights for Hyderabad at $107.01 million while Mr N. Srinivasan, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director on behalf of India Cements, won the bid for Chennai while GMR Holdings won Delhi.
Bombay Dyeing scion Mr Ness Wadia and actor Ms Preity Zinta, Mr Karan Paul and Mr Mohit Burman (of the Dabur family) formed a consortium to win the bid for Mohali. The ‘Bollywood’ team of Mr Shah Rukh Khan, Ms Juhi Chawla and her husband Mr Jay Mehta won Kolkata and Emerging Media bagged Jaipur. Announcing the bids, Mr Lalit Modi, Vice-President of BCCI and Chairman & Commisioner of IPL, said, “It is a historic day as corporates are convinced about the product and have shown their appetite and passion for the game of cricket.”
The IPL franchisees will be paying their bid amounts over a period of 10 years. In addition, they would get “central revenues” comprising 80 per cent of the amount paid for the global media rights (to BCCI) in the first five years and another 60 per cent for the remaining five years. The bidders would also get 60 per cent of the sponsorship revenues garnered over the 10-year period.
“The bidding for each of the eight official franchisees has been fair and transparent and is indicative of the revenue earning potential that the Indian Premier League represents,” said Mr Modi.
Speaking to Business Line after winning the Chennai bid, Mr Srinivasan said India Cements viewed its winning bid as a “good investment.” ICL, he said, had always been a supporter of sport, particularly cricket, and the bid reaffirms its commitment to cricket. “We expect to build this into a viable and vibrant franchise,” he said.
Interestingly Mr Anil Ambani also bid for the teams through his company, Emeralds Telecom, and there were others such as DLF and Deutsche Bank who did not win the bids, said sources close to the bidding process. The other bidders who were disqualified due to their late entry were Sahara India, Future Group and ICICI Ventures.
Mr Modi claimed that IPL is a brand on which one of the highest expenditure commitments have been made in the country. The IPL media rights were sold for $1.026 billion (for a 10-year period) to Sony and WSG. O&M would be the creative agency while Mindshare would take care of the media buying rights.
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