IMG Reliance and Star India's upcoming football tournament, Indian Super League (ISL), has got encouraging response from companies, celebrities as well as other sports team owners for ISL franchises.
According to a statement from the league’s promoters, as many as 30 Invitation to Bid (ITB) documents were received between March 3 and March 21. As a result, the bid process will start from the original date of March 24 and will now be open till 5:00 pm of March 27 instead of the earlier-announced date of
March 25.The winning bids now be announced in the second week of April.
“The league organisers had requests coming in from a large number of prospective bidders to extend the deadline for submission of the bid. Based on these requests, IMG-Reliance, together with STAR India and in consultation with advisory firm Ernst & Young, have decided to grant a one-time extension for bid submission by further two-days,” said a statement released by ISL promoters.
The ITB is available for a fee of Rs 5 lakh. The bid document has been picked up by actor Shah Rukh Khan, who recently announced that he would like to extend his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders, to other sports, especially football. According to sources, he might face tough competition from former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly who is also said to have picked up a bid document. Others in the fray include model, actor and producer John Abraham, actor Ranbir Kapoor, Ronnie Screwvala, Rhiti Sports and JSW Sports.
The base price for bidding for a franchise is Rs 12 crore a year for a tenure of 10 years. The football league, fashioned after the cash-rich twenty-twenty tournament IPL, will have eight teams in its inaugural year.
It has called for bids from nine cities - Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune - of which winning bidders for the top eight cities will be granted the right to own and operate a new football club and participate in the Indian Super League.
The mandate for winning a city team in ISL had a novelty factor as it is not only based on the highest financial bid, but also on the bidders’ proposal of a sound plan for developing football in the catchment area they wish to bid. This plan would also form part of the agreement that each franchise would have to sign with ISL.
