MUMBAI: Baseline Ventures, commercial partners of the Vollyeball Federation of India for its planned franchise based league in India, has extended the deadline to submit expressions of interest for owning any one of the six franchises the will compete in the inaugural season of Pro Volleyball.
The bid documents for prospective franchise owners were made be available from May 15, with June 30 as the original deadline to submit bids. The new deadline is July 10, Pro Volleyball CEO Joy Bhattacharjya told SportzPower.
Bhattacharjya also informed that the earlier plan to hold the first edition of the league from September 15 to October 10, was also being reconsidered as they didn’t want any clash with Pro Kabaddi, which this year will run from mid-September through to the first week of January 2019. Queried as to the when the league would now launch, Bhattacharjya said it was still to be finalised. SportzPower, however, understands that the league is most likely to be slotted in a February-March 2019 window.
Coming back to the bid process, Bhattacharjya had earlier stated: “A bidder will be able to bid for two cities of its choice and the final winning bids for the six teams will be chosen as per the eligibility parameters mentioned in the bid document, which includes their interest in the development of the sport in India.”
Meanwhile, the sports media veteran whose last assignment was as project director for the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017, confirmed that Jaipur will not be one of the venues to host Pro Volleyball, as was earlier planned. He informed that as the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur is under renovation, it will be out of bounds for at least four months.
Chennai and Bhubaneswar have emerged as the frontrunners for hosting the second leg. The first leg will be held in Kochi.
As regards the issue of host venue, Bhattacharjya said active discussions were on with the Odisha government not just around its state capital doing hosting duties, but also on the possibility of Odisha taking responsibility for running a team that represents Bhubaneswar.
Though not fully a like to like comparison, the Odisha government announcing in February that it had negotiated a five-year agreement with Hockey India to replace Sahara as sponsors of all national teams — junior and senior, men and women – in a deal estimated to be worth approximately Rs 1.5 billion, comes to mind.
