KOCHI: The stage is set for the inaugural edition of the RuPay Pro Volleyball League. Marking the occasion, captains of all the six franchises posed with the trophy at the iconic back waters of Kochi.
The league, which is an initiative of Baseline Ventures and Volleyball Federation of India will kick start with a match between Kochi Blue Spikers and U Mumba Volley on Saturday at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi.
The other team from Kerala in the league is Calicut Heroes.
In order to make the game faster and more spectator-friendly, the round robin matches will see five sets of 15 points each and the first to reach 15 points shall win the set. The playoffs will see each set of 25 points. Winning team will be awarded 2 points. If a team wins by 5-0, it will be called a whitewash and the winning team will be awarded 3 points for the same.
Two new concepts of Super Serve and Super Point have been introduced to make the league more exciting. Each ace served will give the serving team two points, which will be called the Super Serve. On the other hand, each team can call for a Super Point once every set, if the team calling the Super Point wins the point it will get two points and if the team loses the point the opposing team gets a two-point advantage. The Super Point though can only be taken before a team has reached 11 points and cannot be carried forward.
PVL CEO Joy Bhattacharjya sounded optimistic and said: “We are just one day away from the start of the league. A lot of hard work and planning has gone in the journey building up to the first day of the league. I am hopeful that the teams will put up a great show for the fans of the sport.”
Tickets are available at the box office and have been priced at Rs 299 while season passes are made available at a 30% discount and the early bird tickets are available at a 20% discount. All the tickets are also available on Paytm and Insider.in, the tournament’s official ticketing partners.
Six franchises will be vying for the RuPay Pro Volleyball League title in the first edition. Ahmedabad Defenders is owned by Bonhomie Sports Event Mgmt. Ltd., Kerala’s Calicut Heroes is owned by Beacon Sports while the Chennai Spartans is owned by Chennai Spartans Pvt. Ltd. U Mumba Volley is owned by U Sports, who also own a team in the Kabaddi league while Black Hawks Hyderabad is owned by Agile Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Thomas Muthoot owns the Kochi franchise called the Kochi Blue Spikers.
All the matches will be broadcast live on Sony Six and Sony Ten 3 and will be streamed live on Sony LIV.
