BCCI floats tender to invite bids for 2 new IPL teams

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has started the process to introduce two new franchises in the next season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The IPL governing council (GC) on Tuesday invited bids for franchises by floating an invitation to tender (ITT). Interested parties can buy the ITT for a non-refundable fee of `10 lakh (plus taxes) till October 5.

The ITT will contain details of the terms and conditions and eligibility criteria for the new team owners.


While the BCCI has not officially announced a base price for the new teams, a source in the board told ET that it will be kept at Rs 1,700 crore.

“There is a lot of interest among industrialists and other HNIs, who may form consortiums to bid for the new franchises. The base price is going to be `1,700 crore, but we might see more than double of it,” said the person. Some of the likely participants include the Adani Group, Sanjiv Goenka-owned RPSG, Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Aurobindo Pharma, Ahmedabad-headquartered Torrent Group and media veteran Ronnie Screwvala. Goenka had earlier owned the Pune franchise Rising Pune Supergiant for two seasons — 2016 and 17.

Ahmedabad and Lucknow are the two cities with the most interest. Other cities, which may see some bids, include Nagpur, Guwahati, Raipur, Visakhapatnam and Cuttack. “Given the way the media rights were sold last time, there is anticipation that the IPL rights will once again see a significant jump, which will directly add to team owners’ coffers,” said a sports marketing expert.

ET had first reported in November last year that the BCCI was planning to introduce at least one new team ahead of the 2021 season.