The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all ready to get wealthier by a minimum of ₹4000 crores with some of the top business establishments set to bid actively for the five Women’s IPL (WIPL) teams.
The bidding will start on Wednesday, and the teams will be auctioned. According to cricket experts, the teams are anticipated to settle up in the “range of 500 to 600 crore INR” for each team in the closed-bid auction.
An insider who had previously worked on auctions of Men’s IPL teams said that the WIPL has a lot of potential, however, most of the legacy teams would like to confuse optimism with pragmatism.
He further told the PCI head of auction that there is an expectation of few bids in the range of ₹500 crore and upwards. Even though ₹800 crores or more could be a little ambitious, the BCCI would not have a problem with that.
More than 30 different companies have purchased the bid documents of monetary worth ₹5 lakh, which includes all the 10 men’s IPL teams. High-profile business houses such as Torrent Group, Adani Group, Haldiram’s Prabhuji, Kotak Group, Aditya Birla Group, and Capri Global have also shown consideration in buying a team.
Some of the mentioned business companies were unproductive when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) welcomed bids for two new men’s teams in 2021.
Among the traditional and well-settled IPL teams, Delhi Capitals, CSK, Mumbai Indians, KKR, and Rajasthan Royals could seriously think it over to add to the carnation of their already existing men’s teams across the world.
There are two fundamental principles on which these bids are made by the corporate houses according to the market insiders.
- “Return on Investment” (ROI)- it is the core idea of any business. It is the profit made on the amount an entity spends.
- “Return of Ego”- This is not a business principle but in a business community they address it. This is something where some of the biggest business icons are willing to pay out any amount of money if they have their eyes on purchasing a specific property. Even if it will take years to meet the breakeven point. It’s about wanting to buy something at any cost.
An established IPL organization with a stable and solid revenue stream in place can afford to extract a bit more in the first few years which is needed can go with the second principle.
A former IPL organization official associated with working on bids threw light on the hypothesis which goes into the auction. He says that if a franchise makes a successful bid of ₹500 crores for a time of five years, so it becomes ₹100 crores devoted straightaway for each of the coming five years.
What will be the source of earnings for the BCCI?
The BCCI disseminates its media broadcast revenue earnings, which is one of the major earning chunks and becomes a source of revenue for the franchisees.
The second is a part of BCCI’s central box of sponsorship. The third is a franchisee’s earnings from sponsorships. Fourth is the gate sales, money earned from tickets.
In the case of Women’s IPL, the BCCI is going to share 80 percent of media rights money with the teams, while in the case of men, it’s 50:50, to help them develop a sustainable model of the organizations.
According to the local media, the telephonic giant JIO has purchased the media rights for five years at ₹950 crore (approx) which is roughly ₹190 crore per year and so 80 percent of 190 crores is 152 crore per year.
The BCCI will also distribute a part of its sponsorships (title sponsor, co-sponsors, and various award sponsors) with the franchise. Add to it the franchisee’s revenue pool also. So it could be anything between ₹15 to ₹18 crores per year.
The Gate sales are not expected to earn a lot in the first year. So the per year earnings for a team is thought to be ₹50 crores.
The local media reported that they will club their male and female teams together and maybe rapidly make the profit zone. The five-team WIPL will be held in March 2024 in Mumbai at a couple of grounds.
