MUMBAI: Six of the ten franchises that make up the Indian Premier League have formally submitted expressions of interest in the Women’s IPL, Cricbuzz reports.
On the day of the technical bids for the WIPL, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, SunRisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore have showed up with bid documents, as per the cricket website. Unconfirmed reports say Punjab Kings was also at the designated venue with bid papers in hand.
According to Cricbuzz, more than 20 non-IPL entities, including Uday Kotak, Chettinad Cement, JK Cement, AWL Appollo, Nilgiri and Haldiram, among others, had taken the Invitation To Tender (ITT) document.
PTI, quoting market experts, reports that WIPL teams are expected to attract bids in the “range of Rs 500 to 600 crore” 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 the 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.
For the record, Monday (January 23) was the day of submission of bid papers showing the credentials.
A Delhi Capitals promoter told Cricbuzz that the franchise will be represented by its two co-owners – GMR and JSW groups – placing a joint bid.
The BCCI has informed the parties that the assessment process will continue for one more day and it will intimate the number of parties who are qualified to take part in the financial bidding by Tuesday afternoon, the website further reported. The financial bidding is on Wednesday when the five WIPL franchises will be announced.
What will have definitely heightened interest among bidders is the price (Rs 950 crores over five years) that the media rights sale delivered.
Viacom18’s game changing Rs 951 crore ($116.3m) commitment to secure global broadcast rights for the WIPL for its first five years (2023 to 2027) effectively makes the T20 tournament one of the most valuable in world cricket and in women’s sport globally.
PTI adds
So what could be a franchisee’s earning from WIPL’s media revenue pool?
“The BCCI in case of Women’s IPL is going to share 80 percent of media rights money with the teams (in case of men, it’s 50:50) to help them develop a sustainable model.
“So what will be the mathematics over here? JIO has brought media rights for five years at Rs 950 crore (approx) which is roughly Rs 190 crore per year. So 80 percent of 190 crore is 152 crore.
“Let’s make it a round figure of Rs 150 crore. That’s what each franchise gets over a period of five years which approximately Rs 30 crore per annum,” he explained.
“Now BCCI will also distribute a chunk of its central pool of sponsorship (title sponsor, co sponsors, various award sponsors) also with franchise. Add to it franchisee’s own revenue pool also. So it could be anything between Rs 15 to Rs 18 crore per year. Gate sales won’t earn you a great deal in first year,” he said.
So the per year earning for a team is expected to be Rs 50 crore.
Now apart from Rs 100 crore franchisee fee per year, what will be the other expenses.
“There is a salary cap of Rs 12 crore for the squad. Add another 6 to 8 crore on salary of support staff. Let’s make it Rs 20 crore. Add the hotel expenses, fees paid to state associations for stadium and other operational costs. It could be anything between Rs 6 to 8 crore. First year single city would reduce expenses.
“So the cumulative expenses per year could be Rs 128 to Rs 130 crore. The earnings would be around Rs 50 crore. So there is a chance during first few years, there would be a loss of Rs 50 crore or more,” he explained.
Herein lies the catch.
“The legacy franchises are better placed to offset these losses as they are already making profits after 15 years of IPL. They will club their men’s and women’s team together and perhaps quickly make the profit zone,” the official added.
Related Report
After WIPL’s rights sale success, action switches to team bids
