WIPL Team Auction | The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is set to make big cash as several business houses are likely to bid aggressively for the five Women's IPL teams. While, the last day to submit the technical bids is January 23, the financial bids will be submitted by January 25, the date when 5 WIPL teams will be unveiled. Notably, 30 odd companies have bought the bid documents worth Rs 5 lakh including corporate houses such as Adani group, Torrent group and Haldiram's Prabhuji, among others.
According to market experts, the teams are expected to shell out in the "range of 500 to 600 crore INR" per team in the closed-bid auction. "WIPL has huge potential but most of the legacy teams would like to mix optimism with pragmatism," an industry insider, who has previously worked on men's IPL team bids, told PTI ahead of the auction. "Expect a few bids in the range of Rs 500 crore upwards. Rs 800 crore plus could be a bit ambitious but BCCI won't complain," he added.
More than 30 odd companies have bought the bid documents worth Rs 5 lakh including all 10 men's IPL teams. Well-known corporate houses such as Adani group, Torrent group, Haldiram's Prabhuji, Capri Global, Kotak and Aditya Birla Group have also shown interest in buying a team. Some of these companies were unsuccessful when BCCI invited bids for two new men's teams in 2021.
Among the traditional IPL teams, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, and Delhi Capitals, KKR could seriously contemplate adding to the bouquet of their already existing men's teams across the globe. According to market insiders, there are two principles on which these bids are placed by the business houses. The first one is "Return on Investment" (ROI), which is the core principle of any business. It is profit on what an entity spends.
The second one isn't a business principle as such but in the business community they call it the "Return of Ego". This is something where some of the biggest business names are ready to shell out any amount if they have their eyes on buying a particular property. Even if it takes five to seven years for touching the breakeven point. It's about wanting to purchase something at any cost. An existing IPL franchise with its "steady revenue stream" in place can afford to "bleed" a bit more in the initial years which is imperative.
