Women’s IPL Team Bid Could Range Between 350-450 Cr Per Franchise For 10-Year License

New Delhi: As the T20 season rolls inexorably in South Africa and the Gulf, a new chapter will be added in the glorious history of Indian cricket when five new teams and their owners will be announced on January 25 for the inaugural edition of the Women’s Indian Premier League (WIPL).

There are at least eight IPL team owners who are expected to make serious bids to own a women’s IPL team. Saturday is the last date for purchasing the Invitation to Tender (ITT) by paying the non-refundable tender fee of INR 5 lakh, plus GST. Date of submission of eligibility documents will be January 23 while financial bids will be opened and winners declared on January 25.

While teams like Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have strong corporate backing, are expected to run the full distance, some interesting companies like Haldiram, Route Mobile, the Naman Group, and APL Apollo have shown their willingness to own teams. It’s good to see modern-age business icons, invested in technology like cloud communication, finances and real estate, wanting to ride sports to leverage their brands. Interestingly, Route Mobile co-founders Rajdip Gupta and Sandip Gupta will be bidding in personal capacity.

The auction of the two new men’s IPL teams in 2021 – Gujarat Lions and Lucknow Super Giants – saw some heavy and unexpected bidding. The RPSG Group stunned everyone by winning the Lucknow franchise with a mammoth bid of 7090 crores. CVC Capital Partners bagged the Ahmedabad team with a bid of 5625 crores. This huge gap between two successful bids highlighted that financial predictions during auctions can go massively wrong.

However, research teams are at work as no less than 18 aspirants eye the five WIPL teams on offer. So, what’s going to be a winning bid? Given the fact that 2023 will be a year of global recession, bidders may be circumspect in their investments although the BCCI’s business model leaves enough scope for team owners to cut losses. Sources say that companies will be willing to pay anything between INR 350-450 crores per team for a 10-year license.

Historically IPL has been recession-free. This has been proved numerous times. The recent players auction that saw England all-rounder Sam Curran pocketing a ridiculously high INR 18.5 crores from Punjab Kings. Return of Investment is always unpredictable. The sale of media rights for WIPL was another surprise.

Although it does not compare with the current men’s media rights, Viacom paying a whopping INR 951 crores for five years, at INR 7.9 crores per match, is simply mind-boggling. This valuation is higher than men’s TV deal when IPL was launched in 2008. As per the ITT, there will be a minimum of 22 WIPL matches per season.

It will be interesting to see how media companies and team sponsors raise their funds during the WIPL. With the Information and Broadcasting ministry serious on stopping offshore betting and gambling sites advertising their brands in India media, there will be pressure on monetization.

The South African T20 tournament and the one in UAE is majorly sponsored by betting and gambling companies. However, real estate and technology companies are expected to call the shots alongside traditional cement, finance and infrastructure behemoths in India.

Teams are also lining up stars to showcase their brands. Men like Vivian Richards and Kevin Pietersen have already aligned themselves with one potential bidder. While big names do add to credibility, in Brand IPL, the only thing that matter is money!

(Soumitra Bose is a senior journalist and a PhD scholar. He tweets @Soumitra65. Views are personal)