Agencies
The BCCI is all set to get richer by up to Rs 4000 crore with some of the top business houses set to bid aggressively for the five
Women's IPL (WIPL) teams that would be auctioned on Wednesday.
According to market experts, the buyers are expected to shell out in the "range of 500 to 600 crore INR" per team in the closed-bid
auction.
"WIPL has huge potential but most of the legacy teams would like to mix optimism with pragmatism," an industry insider, who has
previously worked on men's IPL team bid, told PTI ahead of auction.
"Expect a few bids in the range of Rs 500 crore upwards. Rs 800 crore plus could be a bit ambitious but BCCI won't complain," he
added.
More than 30 odd companies have bought the bid documents worth Rs 5 lakh including all the 10 men's IPL team. Well-known
corporate houses such as Adani group, Torrent group, Haldiram's Prabhuji, Capri Global, Kotak and Aditya Birla Group have also
shown interest in buying a team.
Some of these companies were unsuccessful when BCCI invited bids for two new men's teams in 2021.
Among the traditional IPL teams, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, KKR could seriously contemplate to add to
the bouquet of their already existing men's teams across the globe.
According to market insiders, there are two principles on which these bids are placed by the business houses.
First one is "Return on Investment" (ROI), which is the core principal of any business. It is profit on what an entity spends.
The second one isn't a business principle as such but in business community they call it "Return of Ego".
This is something where some of the biggest business names are ready to shell out any amount if they have their eyes on buying
a particular property. Even if it takes five to seven years for touching breakeven point.
It's about wanting to purchase something at any cost
An existing IPL franchise with its "steady revenue stream" in place can afford to "bleed" a bit more in initial years which is
imperative.
A former IPL franchisee official, who had once worked on bids, explained the rationale which goes into the bidding.
"Let's say, a franchise makes a winning bid of Rs 500 crore for a period of five years. Now that's Rs 100 crore committed
straightaway for each of next five years," the source explained.
Now what will be source of earning for the franchises?
"The BCCI distributes its media broadcast revenue which is one of the major earning chunk. The second is a share from BCCI's
central pool of sponsorship. The third is a franchisee's own set of sponsorship earnings. Fourth is gate sales, money earned from
tickets," he elaborated.
So what could be a franchisee's earning from WIPL's media revenue pool.
