It was a big moment for Indian cricket and world cricket too! A new chapter in Indian cricket
was written, when the DLF IPL kicked off with big fanfare at Chinnaswamy Stadium of
Bangalore on April 18, 2008. There were 8 teams of 16 players each, covering a balanced
blend of international and domestic players, who played 59 matches spanning over 44 days.
IPL financials were based on the American Franchise system which was put up for auctions,
where the highest bidder won the rights to own the team representing each city. The auction was
held on January 24, 2008, with a base price of $400 mn and which actually fetched
$723.59 mn.
The BCCI has formed an IPL council that comprises former BCCI President, IS Bindra;
Vice-Presidents, Rajiv Shukla, Chairayu Amin, Lalit Modi and Arun Jaitley; and former cricketers,
Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri. The BCCI officials are honorary
members, while Pataudi, Gavaskar and Shastri are paid for their services. The IPL governing council has
a five-year term and runs, operates and manages the league, independently of the BCCI.
According to the IPL administrative documents, the franchisee revenue is divided into
two sections. The first is centralized revenue, under which falls the title sponsorship, media rights
and official umpires' sponsorships and the second is franchisee revenue, which primarily deals
with team-naming rights, team shirt sponsorship and ticketing revenues. The ticket collections
constituted the final round of financials. Each franchise got seven matches at the home city and the
revenues from ticket sales was shared with IPL, which got 20%,
with the rest going to the franchisees. There were also
other smaller revenue sources such as from in-stadia
advertising, a part of which went to the franchisee. The TV rating of
IPL was 8.5, averaging up to 5 throughout the entire IPL
series. In fact, IPL became the top show on Indian television for
a period of 44 days. The TV advertisement charges for a
slot of 10 seconds earned a whooping Rs. 1 mn. |
