The wait for the news on the new IPL teams is over with the new venues being picked as Ahmedabad and Lucknow on Monday. While one of the owners is RPSG Group, who previously owned the Rising Pune Supergiant side, will have their side in Lucknow, the newest to join the bandwagon, CVC Capital Partners will see their franchise base themselves out of Ahmedabad.
Both the teams will be added to the tournament from the 2022 season with the mega auction expected to happen in December.
Vying for the two spots were 9 bidders in the auction on Monday in Dubai. While only one bid crossed the Rs 7000 cr mark, two others breached the Rs 5000 cr mark. Six bidders had lodged bids in the Rs 4000 cr region.
While RPSG were the only ones to bid in excess of Rs 7000 crores, the Adani group and the CVC Capital Partners bid Rs 5100 crores (for both venues) and Rs 5625 crores and Rs 5166 crores for Ahmedabad and Lucknow, respectively.
The others in the bidding fray whose numbers were lower are Kotak, Hindustan Times Media Limited, the Glazers, Capri Global Avashya Corporation Pvt. Ltd, and Torrent Sports Ventures.
The details of the bids were shared by Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPSG Enterprises, on Twitter after his company roped in the Lucknow franchise.
'It is heartening to see the inclusion of two new teams at such a high valuation, and it reiterates the cricketing and financial strength of our cricket ecosystem. True to IPL’s motto of ‘Where Talent Meets Opportunity’, the inclusion of two new teams will bring more domestic cricketers from our country to the global stage.' BCCI President Sourav Ganguly said after the announcement.
According to reports, 22 parties had picked up the IPL teams' tender document worth Rs 10 lakh but only ten parties had placed their bids.
The base price for the new teams was set at Rs 2,000 crore.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)