The two new franchises for the Indian Premier League's 2011 season will be announced in Mumbai on Sunday.
"Everyone is speculating many things. You will know (bidders) tomorrow," IPL commissioner and chairman Lalit Modi said on Saturday while announcing the League's first-ever branded merchandise tie-up globally with 130-yer-old Swiss watchmakers Bandelier.
The base price for the two new franchises, which would take up the number of teams in the IPL to 10, has been fixed at USD 225 million.
"We expect the winning bids to be around USD 300 million," a top IPL source revealed.
The terms and conditions for the bidding process have been made stringent with each bidder having been asked to furnish a bank guarantee of USD 100 million along with their bid, the source said.
Talking about IPL's merchandise branding tie-up with Bandelier, Modi said this was the first of many such deals which are in the pipeline.
"We aim to clinch close to 70-80 licensees before the end of the year. The royalty paid by the licensees will be shared among the IPL and the teams," he said.
The branded watches would be priced at the lower range of Rs 40,000 for women and Rs 70,000 for men, it was announced at the media conference.
{{/usCountry}}The branded watches would be priced at the lower range of Rs 40,000 for women and Rs 70,000 for men, it was announced at the media conference.
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