After cricket and wrestling, enter a volleyball league

Joining the bevy of domestic sports leagues this September will be the Pro Volleyball League. Launched as a 50:50 joint venture by the Volleyball Federation of India and sports marketing company Baseline Ventures, the league will start with six city-based franchises. The winner of the league will go on to compete in the international arena in the Asian Volleyball Confederation Club Championship.

Baseline has acquired the rights to the league for 10 years. The firm will pay Rs 35 million in the first year, and an incremental 10 per cent each year in the following years.

The promoters of the league will release the franchise bid document on May 15. There are 14 cities for interested parties to choose from, which will be mentioned in the document. Each bidder can bid for up to three cities, listed in the order of preference. The reserve bid price for the franchise ownership is Rs 30 million.

Each team will have 12 players, with not more than two international ones and 10 Indians. Of the 10 Indian players, at least two will be picked from the under-20 team for nurturing talent. The salary purse for players of each team has been limited to Rs 7.5 million in the first year.

“Our focus as we move in to this new league is to ensure that the franchise owners do not bleed (money). Very often, the owners are given projections that are unrealistic, which leads them to exit the franchise in a couple years. We have tried to control costs wherever we can so that the franchisees can focus on building their teams and strategising the play,” said Joy Bhattarcharjya, chief executive officer (CEO), Pro Volleyball League.

He explained two major steps taken to ensure that costs were rationalised on the franchisees’ side were to cap the fees in the initial years and to exempt the franchisees from taking on the logistics costs at the venues. In the first year, the tournament will take place in two venues — one in the north and the other in the south. The league will take up the caravan format where all teams move from one city to another during the course of the tournament.  

Tuhin Mishra, founder and CEO, Baseline Ventures, said: “Volleyball is a global sport with over 220 countries playing it. And, when you see the performance of the Indian team, it's right up there. The country has an appetite for the sport for sure and where there is a consumer interest, advertisers should follow. We see scope for a lot of the brands that target the youth and the middle-aged people.”   

The annual league will take place at the start of September in the window between the Indian Super League and Pro Kabaddi League.