By Admin 
A tweet by Lalit Modi has once again brought the historic 2008 IPL auction into the limelight. While sharing the statistics of that period, he told how teams worth billions today were once bought at very low prices.
24 January 2008: When the journey of IPL began
The bid for the Indian Premier League franchise was held on 24 January 2008 at 12 noon at the Cricket Center in Mumbai. In this, companies and investors participated and presented their respective bids for different cities. At that time, the biggest bid for the Mumbai team was about $111.9 million. At the same time, franchises for other cities like Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad were also purchased for crores of dollars.
If we look at it from dollars to rupees, the picture is more interesting.
Lalit Modi especially emphasized in his tweet that on that day the price of 1 dollar was around 40 rupees. That is, the amount which seemed big at that time, was quite small as of today. If compared with today’s value, the value of these teams has increased manifold. This is the reason why IPL is now counted among the most successful sports leagues in the world.
payment in 10 years
It was also told in the tweet that the money for the purchase of the teams was not given all at once. It had to be repaid in equal parts over 10 years. This reduced the initial pressure on the franchise owners. Not only this, many teams had started earning profits from the very first year. His earnings from ticket sales, sponsorship and TV rights increased rapidly.
Big names, big stakes
Many big names were involved in this auction. Mukesh Ambani-linked Reliance Group bought the Mumbai team, while Shahrukh Khan’s company Red Chillies had bet on the Kolkata team. Preity Zinta was also involved in the bid for Punjab team. There were some companies which bid for many cities but could not win.
Today’s value is many times higher
According to Lalit Modi, the real value increase can be estimated from today’s figures. Although the exact investment and profit figures are available only in the official filings of the companies, it is clear that this investment proved to be extremely profitable over time.
Record breaking deals changed the picture in 2026
In March 2026, the valuation of IPL created a new record. Recently the RCB team was sold for around $1.78 billion (Rs 16,706 crore), while the price of RR was $1.63 billion (Rs 15,286 crore). These deals have shown that IPL is no longer just cricket but has become a huge global business.