Last week, two new IPL franchises were sold-off by BCCI at record high rates. Does this signal the beginning of a bubble for Lalit Modi's IPL or will his baby turn into the world's largest sporting behemoth?
Three years back, owners of the noted English Premier League (EPL) club paid Rs.1,511 crore to purchase Liverpool, a top name in the EPL for some years now, with stars bought for multi-million dollars like Steven Gerrard (from England), Daniel Sánchez Ayala (from Spain), Javier Mascherano (from Argentina) et al. That was considered one of the biggest deal in the world of sports. A repeat occurred in India last week, when all those present in a five-star hotel ballroom in Chennai were struck with two big surprises. Any observer in all his honest self would confess that none expected the influx of funds to have such unimaginable magnitude. So much so, even IPL's Godfather Modi could not disguise his surprise. “This is a super duper Sunday for BCCI and IPL,” said a beaming Modi. He further admitted that he was expecting much less for each franchise and not Rs.1,702 crore for the Pune team and Rs.1532 crore for the Kochi team (a total of Rs.3,235 crore for the two). In short, individually, both these teams were worth more than the famous Liverpool Football Club. Nothing surprising there, till you realise that unlike the English club, which had well-acclaimed stars during to boast about during the bidding process, nothing was/is known about the names of the Pune and Kochi IPL players – beat that for speculation!
Even when you look at the current IPL contracts, when all the teams were first put up for sale in 2008, the eight franchises were sold for a much lower Rs.2,853 crore, much lower than what the two new teams (as a combine) fetched in this auction. According to a BCCI official, there were five bidders this time for the two new teams, namely, Sahara Adventure Sports Group, Rendezvous Sports World Ltd., VC Digital, Adani Group & Aman Vohra. Out of these five, Subrata Roy-owned Sahara bagged Pune & little known Rendezvous caught hold of Kochi. Knowing Sahara's Roy and his relations with BCCI, the Pune franchise will most likely come out with its IPO in 2013. The BCCI official also said that, "Already one of the major football clubs from England has shown some interest in investing in the Pune franchise. This clearly indicates that Sahara is already looking for investors and can’t swallow a monster like an IPL franchise on its own." If this is the case with Sahara, the fate of Rendezvous appears all the more doubtful. Till date, most can only guess as to which parties actually formed this group. Insiders claim that Rendezvous is a consortium formed by Vivek Venugopal, Mukesh Patel, Ravi & Shailendra Gaekwad, Anchor Switches, Rosy Blue Diamond, Anchor Earth Pvt. Ltd and Parinee Developers.
Whether it is the well-known Amby Valley knight or some unknown Special Purpose Vehicles, the real rub lies in the outflows that are bound to follow. Whatever the parties have spent so far is only for the purchase of the respective franchises. Now, they have to invest on players, staff, logistics and infrastructure. Starting September, the players' auctions will start, and Sahara and Rendezvous will be forced to shell-out some precious coins for purchasing players. Next comes supporting staff, back up logistics... and the list continues! At the end of the day, building your team as a dominant brand poses the biggest challenge. Though for various reasons, this doesn't appear to be an issue in the case of Sahara, as far as Rendezvous goes, it sure has a rough uphill ride ahead. So there are many dark clouds looming large over Kochi. But as the grapevine telegraph has to offer, with Shashi Tharoor (who is the Minister of State for External Affairs) to back you up as far as funds are concerned, would you ever waste a frown? Perhaps not...
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009
Three years back, owners of the noted English Premier League (EPL) club paid Rs.1,511 crore to purchase Liverpool, a top name in the EPL for some years now, with stars bought for multi-million dollars like Steven Gerrard (from England), Daniel Sánchez Ayala (from Spain), Javier Mascherano (from Argentina) et al. That was considered one of the biggest deal in the world of sports. A repeat occurred in India last week, when all those present in a five-star hotel ballroom in Chennai were struck with two big surprises. Any observer in all his honest self would confess that none expected the influx of funds to have such unimaginable magnitude. So much so, even IPL's Godfather Modi could not disguise his surprise. “This is a super duper Sunday for BCCI and IPL,” said a beaming Modi. He further admitted that he was expecting much less for each franchise and not Rs.1,702 crore for the Pune team and Rs.1532 crore for the Kochi team (a total of Rs.3,235 crore for the two). In short, individually, both these teams were worth more than the famous Liverpool Football Club. Nothing surprising there, till you realise that unlike the English club, which had well-acclaimed stars during to boast about during the bidding process, nothing was/is known about the names of the Pune and Kochi IPL players – beat that for speculation!
Even when you look at the current IPL contracts, when all the teams were first put up for sale in 2008, the eight franchises were sold for a much lower Rs.2,853 crore, much lower than what the two new teams (as a combine) fetched in this auction. According to a BCCI official, there were five bidders this time for the two new teams, namely, Sahara Adventure Sports Group, Rendezvous Sports World Ltd., VC Digital, Adani Group & Aman Vohra. Out of these five, Subrata Roy-owned Sahara bagged Pune & little known Rendezvous caught hold of Kochi. Knowing Sahara's Roy and his relations with BCCI, the Pune franchise will most likely come out with its IPO in 2013. The BCCI official also said that, "Already one of the major football clubs from England has shown some interest in investing in the Pune franchise. This clearly indicates that Sahara is already looking for investors and can’t swallow a monster like an IPL franchise on its own." If this is the case with Sahara, the fate of Rendezvous appears all the more doubtful. Till date, most can only guess as to which parties actually formed this group. Insiders claim that Rendezvous is a consortium formed by Vivek Venugopal, Mukesh Patel, Ravi & Shailendra Gaekwad, Anchor Switches, Rosy Blue Diamond, Anchor Earth Pvt. Ltd and Parinee Developers.
Whether it is the well-known Amby Valley knight or some unknown Special Purpose Vehicles, the real rub lies in the outflows that are bound to follow. Whatever the parties have spent so far is only for the purchase of the respective franchises. Now, they have to invest on players, staff, logistics and infrastructure. Starting September, the players' auctions will start, and Sahara and Rendezvous will be forced to shell-out some precious coins for purchasing players. Next comes supporting staff, back up logistics... and the list continues! At the end of the day, building your team as a dominant brand poses the biggest challenge. Though for various reasons, this doesn't appear to be an issue in the case of Sahara, as far as Rendezvous goes, it sure has a rough uphill ride ahead. So there are many dark clouds looming large over Kochi. But as the grapevine telegraph has to offer, with Shashi Tharoor (who is the Minister of State for External Affairs) to back you up as far as funds are concerned, would you ever waste a frown? Perhaps not...
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009
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