Sanjiv Goenka Reveals Why He Went Ahead With Lucknow Despite Being The Highest Bidder For Ahmedabad And Lucknow

Sanjiv Goenka, the chairman of RPSG Group that bought the Lucknow franchise, revealed his reasoning behind opting for Lucknow instead of Ahmedabad. RPSG earned the ownership rights with a winning bid of INR 7090 crores in the closed auction held on Monday in Dubai.

Goenka was previously part of the IPL when he owned Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) for a period of two years (2016-2017). He will now assemble a different squad with a base set up in Lucknow. Goenka had actually won the bids for both Lucknow and Ahmedabad, but he chose to stick with the former.

When asked about the reasoning behind the decision in an exclusive chat with Cricbuzz, Sanjiv Goenka said: “We have operations in Uttar Pradesh. We do power distribution there. We have a very big presence in the northern state. Closer by in Chandigarh, we have the power distribution rights. So for North India, that becomes like a hinterland.”

Sanjiv Goenka explains the business model

The billionaire further revealed that the investments were calculated from a long time ago. He was waiting for an opportunity to get back into the IPL, and when the chance arrived, he pounced on it. When questioned about the business model.

“It is simple. You are paying the difference between what you get from the BCCI and what you have to pay to the BCCI. Of the Rs 7000 crore, I will probably be paying only Rs 3500 crore in 10 years,” Goenka said.

“It is because I will be getting Rs 3500 crore from the BCCI from the broadcast rights. In the next five years, I may get more (from the BCCI). The net present value of that is Rs 2100 crore. That means I have got an IPL team for Rs 2100 crore,” he added.

Finally, the 60-year-old mentioned that the name of the team hadn’t been decided yet. Also, the players to buy will be decided once the BCCI confirms the retention policies.

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