MUMBAI: This is the best endorsement yet for BCCI’s upcoming announcement of the two entities that will own and operate the two new Indian Premier League franchises that will compete in the IPL from the 2022 season on. The Glazer family, which owns English Premier League giants Manchester United, have reportedly picked up the Invitation To Tender (ITT) document floated recently by the Indian cricket board.
As per Times of India, the owners of Manchester United are tracking the developments in the world’s most valuable T20 league with keen interest.
Among others who have picked up the ITT are the Adani Group, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Hindustan Times Media, Jindal Steel (led by Naveen Jindal), entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala and three private equity players.
For the record, Joel Glazer is an American businessman with a current net worth of approximately $1 billion and a member of the Glazer family, which, besides Manchester United, also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL).
The ITT floated by the BCCI, one that has called for closed bids to be submitted by 20 October second deadline extension), has some strict clauses. Potential bidders have to have an average turnover of Rs 30 billion or a personal net worth of Rs 25 billion to be eligible to bid, according to a BCCI statement.
The average turnover clause was recently reworked by the BCCI after certain potential bidders made a specific request to lower the value in order to meet the eligibility criteria.
“So, technically, overseas investors are eligible to submit a bid if they meet these conditions. We don’t really know whether Man U owners will come to the bidding table. What we certainly know is that they’ve shown interest,” the TOI report stated.
As per BCCI’s last statement, Wednesday (October 20) was the deadline to pick up the tender documents available at a price of Rs 1 million. “A lot of people usually pick these tender documents to study and gather information that tends to be otherwise very useful from a larger industry perspective. For instance, buying a bid document will tell me more about what the BCCI is planning next, in terms of the league expansion, etc. For instance, if Disney has bought the tender document to buy the franchise, it doesn’t mean Disney is interested in owning a franchise. It will study the document because it has to plan its own media rights landscape,” the report added.
Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Guwahati, Cuttack, Indore and Dharamsala are among the cities that will remain topmost on the minds of investors as they go about preparing to bid for the two new franchises.
The formal announcement is expected to be made on the October 26th and the bids will be submitted in the UAE, where the T20 World Cup 2021 is going on.
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