For the next three years, the total number of franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) will not be increased. Eight teams form the league at the moment and the number will remain the same till 2017.
During a conversation on Monday morning, the Supreme Court-appointed interim head of the IPL Sunil Gavaskar, IPL governing council chairman Ranjib Biswal and the Chief Operating Officer of the league Sundar Raman spoke about the shifting of the league from India to UAE due to the general elections, responded saying about their attempt at eradicating corruption and the immediate plans ahead.
“The BCCI has frozen the number of teams to eight till 2017,” Biswal said. For the next three years, there will be no replacements for the two franchises – Sahara Pune Warriors and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala – that were sacked in 2012 and 2013 respectively for various reasons pertaining to their contractual obligations with the IPL.
The governing council of the league has also increased the prize money this year from Rs 25 crore to Rs 40 crore, which Sundar Raman explained has been done to make teams more competitive for finishing in the top four. “There’s a prize purse that doubles if you finish in the top four,” the IPL CEO said.
The eight franchises have been busy these last seven years creating their own business models, striking long or short-term deals with sponsors, earning from the gate revenue and more. Putting it in perspective, Sundar Raman said “the business model of the IPL is pretty robust and possibly a better model than any other franchise-operating leagues right now.”
The eight franchises will stop paying the franchise fee to the BCCI after 2017, and will be owned by its present owners in perpetuity.
“The board commits to minimum revenue to each franchise right at the top of the season, which means at the tenth year you stop paying the franchise fee and only share a percentage of the revenue you earn. So the bulk of the expense doesn’t exist after that,” Sundar Raman explained.
The IPL has been questioned with problems back home following corruption charges which are being heard in the Supreme Court right now. However, the owners insist that the public support for the tournament has only gone up in the current year.
“Compared to the first seven days of last season, the online viewership has doubled – 12 million compared to 6 million. The page views on the website have been 50% higher till April 26 – 89 million. On other social networks we have had more than nine million followers. IPL is the first Indian brand to achieve this,” Sundar Raman said.