Reports: New IPL franchises garner huge interest

The two spots vacated by CSK and RR have enthused the interested bidders

The two spots vacated in the eight-team IPL, following the verdict of the Justice Lodha Committee that has suspended the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals, have gathered considerable interest from the willing parties. Over 10 companies have bought the Invitation To Tender (ITT) document, that was released to replace the aforementioned franchises, reports ESPN Cricinfo.

Chettinad Group and ITW, both based in Chennai, Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer, electronics giant Videocon, Group M, Intex Mobile, Haldiram, and Yes Bank were some of the companies that purchased the bid-document. Atletico de Kolkata co-owner Sanjiv Goenka, along with his brother Harsh Goenka, the chairman of the RPG group, have also purchased the document. The owners of the two franchises will be declared through a competitive bidding process on December 9.

A BCCI official was particularly enthused with the interest shown by the bidders in procuring the document.

"Ten-twelve bids is quite a lot," he said. "Obviously there is a high-level of interest in the document, but who knows how many of these companies will actually translate this into a specific bid."

Rajiv Shukla, the IPL Chairman, had mentioned earlier that reverse-bidding process would be used for picking the two new teams.

”The base price for the reverse bid from the central revenue pool is Rs 40 crore and the party which bids for lowest share from the central revenue pool will be the winner of the new team," Shukla had told PTI.

Another official of the board hailed the reverse-bidding process as an interesting proposal.

“There is no franchise fee, so you don't pay a higher franchise fee and buy a team. Normally they pay the franchise fee and we give a share of the broadcast rights.

“In a reverse bid, say for instance a company bids asking us for only Rs 20 crore from the broadcast rights, while another company asks for only Rs 15 crore. The one that asks for less money from us gets the rights," he said.

The official also said that it was a win-win situation for all the stakeholders involved, as the company that eventually buys the franchise would gain a lot of money via publicity. He further added, “This system has been devised because a franchise fee for a two-year period is difficult to evaluate, as you then get into valuation territory."

Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended from the IPL by the Lodha Committee that was appointed by the Honourable Supreme Court of India to investigate the IPL corruption scandal of 2013.