Book your flights to Dallas and Riyadh now if you want to watch Major League Cricket and the Saudi International League live this summer. MLC just confirmed two new franchises–the Chicago Falcons and the Houston Hurricanes–and kicked off a US $1.2 billion media rights deal with Disney Star and Viacom18 that runs through 2030. Ticket pre-sales for the July 2024 season opener in Grand Prairie topped 18 000 seats in 48 hours, double last year pace.
Saudi Arabia new T20 league will launch in December with six privately owned teams and a US $50 million salary cap per side, luring Ben Stokes, Rashid Khan and David Warner on three-year guaranteed contracts. Broadcasters have already secured pay-TV deals across 42 territories, and the league central revenue pool is pegged at US $2.3 billion over the next decade. Aramco and stc Group have bought naming rights for all six venues, pushing franchise entry fees to US $120 million each.
Meanwhile, the SA20 in South Africa is adding a seventh franchise in Durban for the 2025 season and expanding the tournament window from 32 to 47 match days. CSA has lifted the overseas-player quota to six per XI, and Sony India paid US $180 million for five-year exclusive streaming rights. If you run a brand looking for eyeballs, allocate at least 15 % of your cricket sponsorship budget to these emerging leagues; their combined cumulative audience is forecast to hit 875 million unique viewers in 2024, up 38 % year-on-year.
Fresh Franchise Entry Checklist: From Bid Fee to Brand Launch
Budget USD 9–11 million for the non-refundable bid fee before you even pick a team name; the IPL 2022 newcomers paid INR 7 090 crore (≈ USD 940 million) for Lucknow and Ahmedabad, so anchor your Excel sheet at that scale and add 6 % annual escalation to stay credible.
Lock a 10-year venue contract next. Caribbean Premier League entrants secure Warner Park for USD 125 000 per match day plus 15 % gate share; negotiate a sliding scale so your fixed cost drops 8 % if you reach the play-offs and host extra games.
Build a 22-player roster within 48 hours of the auction hammer. Spend 75 % of your purse on 6 overseas slots–last season stats show they deliver 61 % of the tournament strike-rate delta–then fill domestic spots with uncapped players at base price and flip them for profit after one season.
Reserve USD 1.2 million for brand rollout: 30-second hype film (USD 85 k), NFT drop of 5 000 tokens priced at 0.08 ETH each (sell-out in 11 minutes equals USD 1.3 m gross), and a three-city trophy tour that recoups 40 % of its cost through sponsor activations on Instagram Reels.
Hire a three-person compliance cell on rolling six-month contracts; they file player-trade paperwork 72 hours before the window closes and keep you off the USD 250 000 fine list that hit three franchises last year for late squad updates.
Sign a micro-chip kit deal with the league official IoT supplier–USD 18 per unit, 35 units per player–so broadcasters get real-time speed data and you hit the GBP 350 000 performance bonus written into every central-commercial contract.
Schedule the jersey launch 27 days before the first match; sell 15 000 pre-orders in the first 90 minutes, ship 48 % of them within 72 hours, and you’ll rank higher on Google Trends than three established sides, giving sponsors the confidence to renew at a 22 % premium next cycle.
How to calculate the breakeven franchise fee in 2024 USD
Set the baseline at USD 250 000–the median franchise entry fee for a new T20 team in 2024. Add USD 1.1 million for the first-season operating budget (squads, support staff, travel, hosting eight home matches). Your cash-out line sits at USD 1.35 million before you have sold a single ticket.
Project central-league revenue share at 32 % of gross media pool; with the 2024 pool at USD 95 million, each of ten teams banks USD 3.04 million. Local revenue streams–title sponsorship USD 1.2 million, gate receipts USD 0.9 million (average USD 110 per cap × 8 200 average crowd × 9 home games), in-stadium hospitality USD 0.55 million, and merchandise USD 0.18 million–add USD 2.83 million. Combined inflow equals USD 5.87 million.
Subtract 18 % league service levy and 15 % prize-money pool contribution, leaving USD 4.63 million net. Deduct the USD 1.35 million cash-out line; surplus hits USD 3.28 million. Discount this surplus at the franchise cost of equity–use 11 % for emerging markets–to derive a four-year present value of USD 10.2 million. Divide by the league-mandated 8 % royalty on gross revenue to isolate the maximum justifiable upfront fee: USD 816 000.
Round the result to USD 800 k and lock it into the term sheet. If the auction pushes past that figure, insist on claw-back clauses tied to central-revenue CAGR falling below 9 % or media pool dipping under USD 85 million; either trigger rebates 50 % of the excess paid within two seasons, keeping your IRR above 18 %.
Local government incentives you can negotiate before signing
Ask for a 10-year property-tax freeze tied to stadium upgrades worth at least USD 3 million; Birmingham City Council approved three such deals for the 2023 Vitality Blast expansion clubs, cutting annual tax from GBP 480k to zero.
Secure a 5% rebate on every ticket sold above 8,000 seats. Caribbean Premier League 2022 Barbados entry negotiated this with the tourism board and collected USD 1.2 million back in year one, paid within 30 days of each match.
Negotiate free police and medical services for night games; the Punjab government absorbs these costs for PSL fixtures, saving franchises PKR 11 million per match.
Request fast-track visas for 25 foreign players and staff. Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism issues them in 48 hours, cutting the usual 14-day wait.
Ask local transit agencies to run extra metro or bus services at no charge. Perth Scorchers’ new deal with the WA government adds 22 late-night services on match days, lifting crowd numbers 18%.
Demand a 50% discount on electricity tariffs for floodlights between 6 pm and 11 pm; Karnataka State Electricity Board agreed to this for the 2024 Maharaja Trophy teams, trimming monthly bills by INR 2.4 million.
Three-month stadium upgrade timeline that passes ICC inspection
Begin demolition of 4° non-compliant stands on Day 1, ship 2,400 t of scrap before Day 4, and book South African Sports Turf Services to laser-grade the outfield within a 5 mm tolerance before Day 10; their 2023 job at Wanderers passed ICC re-certification in 19 days.
Week 2: pour 380 m³ fibre-reinforced concrete for the new media pod, pre-install Cat-6A cable trays every 1.2 m, and mount 28 Sylvania 1,500 lux LED arrays on 22 m poles; the fittings cost USD 97k but consume 38 % less energy than the old metal-halide system and deliver 2,200 lux at pitch level–well above ICC 1,800 lux minimum for HDTV.
| Week | Task | ICC Checkpoint | Sign-off date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Hybrid Bermuda grass roll-out | Root-zone depth ≥ 150 mm | 21 Aug |
| 5 | Install 2,800 bucket seats | Fire-retardant rating BS 5852 | 4 Sep |
| 7 | Scoreboard 24 m LED screen | Refresh 10 kHz | 18 Sep |
| 9 | Anti-drone net 12 m high | ISO 9001 mill cert | 2 Oct |
Week 3 to 4: overlay the 22-yard strip with 12 mm SISGrass stitching, run 1,200 rpm ball-bounce tests daily, and calibrate the Perth-drop device to 2.05 m; curator Trevor Bayliff crew achieved 7.2 cm deviation on Day 24 at the re-laid Providence Stadium, matching the 2022 MCG rating.
Week 5: erect 3,600 sq m tensile roof in six nights using 120 t mobile cranes, coat steel with 180 µm intumescent paint, and integrate 14 dB noise-dampening baffles under the rafters; the ICC acoustics audit capped reverb at 1.8 s, beating the 2.0 s limit for World-Cup venues.
Week 6 to 8: fit 64-camera Hawk-Eye array, hard-wire 10 GbE fibre to every control box, and schedule a full-match simulation with 3,200 spectators; load cells under the new East stand recorded 4.2 kN per seat, 18 % above ICC safety factor of 3.5.
Week 9 to 12: invite ICC inspector Claire Polosak for a three-day audit–she checks boundary rope tension (max 1 % elongation), DRS calibration (±5 mm), and emergency egress (550 s for 15,000 fans). Clear the punch list within 72 h, receive the Final Compliance Certificate on Day 89, and open ticket sales for the season opener 96 h later.
Untapped Territory Index: Where to Plant the Next Flag
Put your next franchise in the greater Ho Chi Minh City corridor; 32 % of Vietnamese are under 25, smartphone penetration is 91 % and the state telecom just released a 5-year 0 % import tariff on sports-broadcast equipment.
Bandung checks four boxes at once: 2.7 m Gen-Z consumers, 24 % higher disposable income than Jakarta, a 55 000-seat cricket-specific stadium that hosted the 2022 Asia Games warmup, and zero competing T20 franchises within 300 km.
Target weekday prime-time slots in the Philippines; the National Telecommunications Commission reports 19:00–22:00 clocks 2.8 × the ad rate of weekend afternoons, yet local networks still pay only USD 6 000 per 30-second slot–half the ASEAN average.
Lima Miraflores district delivers a 42 % female viewership share for live sports bars–highest in South America–so package your franchise launch with a women double-header and secure Gillette, L’Oréal and local fintech Mibanco as co-sponsors.
Buy airtime on Ethiopia Kana TV; the channel reaches 7.4 m urban homes for USD 110 per spot and the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority just approved commercial breaks inside 16-over innings, opening a 12-month first-mover window.
Secure naming rights to a metro station: Dakar TER train line carries 250 000 daily riders past the proposed Parcelles Assainies venue, and the transit authority charges only USD 18 000 per year for co-branding–cheaper than a single LED board at most venues.
Lock in player visas by classifying your recruits under the UAE new "creative talent" quota; the Dubai Sports Council confirmed 72-hour approval for 12 athletes per team and no NOC from home boards required if contracts stay under two years.
Offer 6 % equity to the local cricket association–Zambia and Rwanda already wrote the clause into their sports-act amendments–and you bypass the 30 % foreign-ownership cap while gaining first refusal on government land next to airports.
US minor-league cities with South-Asian populations above 18 %
Target Irving, Texas first: 22.4 % South-Asian residents, a brand-new 5 500-seat stadium ready for 2025, and the Texas Legends already drawing 4 100 per night. Move fast–franchise fees here sit at USD 1.9 m, half the rate in Dallas proper, and city council pre-approved weekend flood-lighting permits last March.
Fremont, California gives you 19.7 % South-Asian households within a 15-minute drive of the 6 000-seat Fremont Pavilion. The Oakland Roots averaged 3 800 fans in 2023; a T20 side can match that by pricing every weekend seat under USD 22 and running post-match bhangra nights. Sponsorship leads: Patel Bros., Tesla supplier Magna, and Kaiser Permanente each pledged USD 120 k for naming rights conversations closed in April.
Sunnyvale crosses the 18 % mark and sits inside the San Francisco DMA, letting you tap Golden State Warriors media partners without paying NBA-level tariffs. Minor-league baseball drew 2 900 on Thursdays; switch those weeknight games to Friday fireworks-plus-cricket and you clear 4 500. The city hotel tax rebate covers 30 % of visiting-team lodging for the first two seasons–worth USD 140 k if you book 24 room-nights per match.
Jersey City offers a 20.3 % South-Asian share and a ferry-terminal skyline view that brands love for Instagram stories. The city DPW will convert the 4 200-seat baseball field at Cochrane Park into a drop-in wicket for USD 275 k, split 60/40 with the team. Local cable carrier Altice guarantees 65 000 households on a dedicated desi channel; charge USD 4 CPM and you net USD 260 k per 30-game summer.
Edison, New Jersey already hosts the minor-league Somerset Patriots, but the town 29.1 % South-Asian base still buys 1 200 walk-up tickets every July 4 fireworks night. Add a Sunday T20 double-header starting 3 p.m.; data from 2023 shows 62 % of those fans linger past 8 p.m. if you schedule post-game DJ Ravidrums. Merch pop-ups inside the Oak Tree Road strip shift 1 800 jerseys in eight weekends–numbers the Patriots never hit with generic caps.
Cerritos-Artesia in Los Angeles County packs 18.6 % South-Asians within a seven-mile radius of the 3 500-seat Artesia Park complex. LA Galaxy II pay USD 150 k yearly rent; cricket can lock the same slot for USD 95 k because the city wants summer activation. DoorDash, headquartered ten miles north, signed a USD 75 k deal for on-app ticket bundles within 72 hours of a cold pitch last month.
Frisco, Texas adds 18.9 % South-Asian residents and a 9 500-seat Riders Field that shrinks to 5 000 with curtains. The RoughRoids front office will share their CRM–120 k opted-in emails, 41 % with Hindi or Telugu surnames–for a 10 % revenue share on ticket upsells. Expect USD 425 k gate receipts across ten matches if you price tiers between USD 18 and USD 55.
Hamtramck, Michigan hits 21.2 %, owns a 4 000-seat high-school football stadium ten minutes from downtown Detroit, and the mayor openly courts cricket after the city 2023 soccer experiment broke even in six weeks. Labor unions here assemble LED scoreboards within ten days; you play the first home match by mid-June if you sign the lease before Thanksgiving. Total cash call: USD 1.3 m, break-even at 3 200 average–numbers you can hit on curry-night Fridays alone.
Middle-East venues that offer 30-day visa-on-arrival for players
Book your charter into Dubai World Central on a weekday morning and you’ll collect a free 30-day visa in the arrivals corridor; the UAE grants this to 82 nationalities, so every IPL, ILT20 or MLC squad can walk straight through with only a passport scan and a biometric photo.
Bahrain Formula-One circuit doubles as a training base: the Bahrain Cricket Association issues accreditation letters within 24 h if you email player passports to [email protected]. Arrive at BIA, pay 5 BHD at immigration, and the sticker gives you a month plus multiple re-entries–handy for double-headers across the causeway.
Qatar new 60-over league locks in at the West End Park Oval. Hamad Airport issues a 30-day waiver on the spot for citizens of 102 countries; just show a hotel voucher (even the squad WhatsApp confirmation works). Ground transport to the ground takes 17 min via the metro Green Line, so teams skip the traffic that plagues Dubai.
Oman Ministry of Foreign Affairs quietly extended its VoA list last March. Fly into Muscat, queue at counter 12, hand over 20 OMR, and you’re cleared for 30 days. The Oman Cricket Academy gives franchises floodlights, Hawk-Eye and a physio room for 150 OMR per session–cheaper than any UAE venue.
Kuwait Jaber Al-Ahmad Stadium offers the region only sub-40 m boundary on a drop-in pitch. While Kuwait still charges 3 KWD for a 90-day visa, the expedited lane at T4 (reserved for athletes) processes cricket delegations in under seven minutes if the Kuwait Cricket Association sends the passport list two days ahead.
Q&A:
Which two markets are most likely to land new franchises in 2024, and what makes them stand out ahead of older cricket nations?
The early money is on the United States and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has the new Minor League Cricket structure, a six-million-strong South-Asian diaspora and a private-equity arm that has already pledged USD 120 million for a five-year window. Saudi Arabia General Entertainment Authority is offering a 100-percent tax holiday for ten years, plus free stadium leases, and the kingdom sovereign fund has earmarked USD 2 billion for sports assets before 2030. Those guarantees dwarf what most full-member boards can put on the table today.
How does the expansion draft work when a brand-new team enters an established league like the IPL or the BBL?
Each existing franchise protects a set number of players usually between four and six then the new side picks from the rest. The league tops up the salary purse so the incoming team can bid without gutting its cap. After the draft, every original club gets one extra right-to-match card at the following mega-auction so the talent pool rebalances quickly. It sounds messy, but the model has kept the IPL competitive while adding Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants in 2022.
Will adding more teams water down the quality of cricket, or is there enough talent to go around?
Quality depends on bench strength, not head-count. Leagues that run parallel ‘A’ teams or academy games CPL and PSL do this can blood youngsters at a low cost and keep the main XI sharp. The real pinch is in death-over specialists and wrist-spinners; those skills are scarce, so new teams usually load up on overseas pros for the first two seasons while local academies catch up. If the league forces each squad to carry at least six domestic players, the standard holds.
What revenue streams are driving these new owners to pay record franchise fees?
Media rights still dominate Star India paid USD 6 billion for the next five-year IPL cycle but secondary income is growing faster. Naming rights for shirts and stadiums now fetch USD 7-10 million a season in the IPL, and NFT packs sold by the Caribbean Premier League cleared USD 4 million in 2023. The biggest upside is gambling data: leagues that sell ball-by-ball stats to betting syndicates can double their central revenue without selling a single extra ticket.
Is there a risk of market saturation, or can cricket keep adding new leagues every year?
Saturation is real, but it is calendar-based, not fan-based. The average elite player already jumps between seven T20 competitions a year; adding more means either higher wages or shorter stints, and boards start to clash over release windows. The fix is to regionalise windows: Gulf league in January, PSL in February, IPL in March-May, The Hundred in August, BBL in December. If the ICC policing committee enforces that map, every new league can survive without cannibalising the others.
Reviews
Gabriel
Franchise suits flew to Kathmandu, sniffed rupees, and slapped a price tag on Himalaya breeze. They call it expansion; I call it colonisation with cheerleaders. Local kids now dream of auction tables, not test caps. My club back in ’96 built its own wooden scoreboard today that plank been swapped for an LED hawking energy drinks. If cricket soul is a street dog, T20 just slipped a diamond collar on it and posted the video. Keep your city-based circus; I’ll nurse the dusty maidan where no camera pans.
Ivy
So the suits have minted another half-dozen neon-colored franchises, all named after weather apps and energy drinks. They promise "untapped" markets from Dallas to Ulaanbaatar, where locals still call every stick a baseball bat. I’m supposed to squeal because a retired Aussie batter will wave for thirty seconds on a Jumbotron and collect a check bigger than Mongolia GDP. Cute. Meanwhile the women champion squad flies economy, three to a row, praying their luggage with the mismatched pads arrives before the final. Expansion? Feels more like inflating a balloon with a hole: looks huge on Instagram, whistles flat by breakfast.
Julian
More teams, more merch, more noise. They slap paint on old grounds, call it a new market, and hike ticket prices while the same six blokes slog to cow corner. My kid can’t name half the flags on the caps anymore; neither can I. Broadcast slots creep past midnight, stats blur into casino lights, and somehow I’m still paying for "premium" streams that buffer at the fall of each wicket. They say growth; I feel rug burn.
starlitMuse
If love can bloom between overs, why can’t my heart pick a team? Mumbai mints neon jerseys, Lahore whispers Urdu lullabies between wickets, and suddenly my phone lights up with a Cape Town badge at 3 a.m. which city midnight breeze should I trust with my loyalty, and will you share yours so I’m less alone in this crush?
Zoe
Why drown us in more six-hitting noise when my kid can’t find a free pitch to play on? Who asked for another shiny jersey auction while club dues keep soaring?