The Indian Premier League (IPL) will see no increase in the number of teams in the next three years as the BCCI has decided to stick to the present eight teams till 2017.
The decision comes as a response to there being no replacement for the two franchises sacked in 2012 and 2013 - the Sahara Pune Warriors and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala respectively.
"The BCCI has frozen the number of teams to eight till 2017," the IPL governing council chairman Ranjib Biswal said in Dubai.
The business pattern of the IPL is such that everything has doubled since the previous year including the prize money (which has increased to ₹40 crore from ₹ 25 crore), the online viewership and followers among others.
"There's a prize purse that doubles if you finish in the top four," the Chief Operating Officer of the league 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."
"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 26 April - 89 million. On other social networks we have had more than nine million followers. IPL is the first Indian brand to achieve this."
The existing eight franchises, as the contract suggests, will not have to pay the franchise fee to the BCCI after 2017, and can own the teams 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," Raman added. "So the bulk of the expense doesn't exist after that."
Image credit: BCCI
(Ed:AJ)
