Prime Volleyball League

Prime Volleyball League

Current season, competition or edition: 2024 Prime Volleyball League
Sport	Volleyball
Founded	2021;3 years ago (2021)
First season	2022
CEO	Joy Bhattacharjya
Administrator	Baseline Ventures
No. of teams	9
Country	India
Confederation	AVC
Most recent champion(s)	Calicut Heroes (1st title) (2024)
Most titles	Kolkata Thunderbolts Ahmedabad Defenders Calicut Heroes (1 title each)
TV partner(s)	Sony Sports
Streaming partner(s)	Volleyball TV
Sponsor(s)	Rupay
Official website	PVL

Prime Volleyball League (PVL), also known as RuPay Prime Volleyball League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's indoor volleyball league in India. The inaugural season took place in February 2022. ^[1] The league is an initiative of Baseline Ventures with no involvement from Volleyball Federation of India and a rechristened version of the Pro Volleyball League which was held in February 2019. ^[2] Sony Pictures Networks India is the official broadcaster of the league. ^[3] RuPay is the title sponsor of the league and signed the contract for three years. ^[4]

Background

The Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) in association with the Baseline Ventures launched and conducted the inaugural season of a franchise-based indoor volleyball league called Pro Volleyball League in 2019 and Chennai Spartans won the title. ^[5] Later it was discontinued in the same year after the VFI and Baseline got embroiled in a dispute and the federation terminated the 10-year contract with Baseline alleging breach of trust. ^[6] In November 2020, a Madras High Court-appointed arbitrator found the termination wrongful and awarded ₹ 4.5 crore to Baseline as compensation for terminating its contract. ^[7] In June 2021, Baseline Ventures joined hands with few original franchise owners from Pro Volleyball League to launch a new league called Prime Volleyball League with no involvement from VFI this time. Five of the six teams (Ahmedabad, Calicut, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi) from Pro Volleyball League returned to this league with two new teams (Bengaluru and Kolkata) were added. ^[2]

On 14 February 2022, VFI announced the launch of Indian Volleyball League, making it the only recognised league by VFI in India. ^[8]

Volleyball World has signed multiple-year contract with Prime Volleyball League. Prime Volleyball League will broadcast globally through its platform. ^[9]

In October 2022, the league announced an eighth team called the Mumbai Meteors that is based in Mumbai which played the 2023 Prime Volleyball League season. They were bought by the PhonePe owners. ^[10]

In December 2023, the league announced a ninth team called the Delhi Toofans that is based in Delhi which will play the 2024 Prime Volleyball League season. They were bought by the Sanghi Group. ^[11]

Teams

Chennai Blitz

Kochi Blue Spikers

Kolkata Thunderbolts

Calicut Heroes

Bengaluru Torpedoes

Hyderabad Black Hawks

Ahmedabad Defenders

Mumbai Meteors

Delhi Toofans

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Locations of the Nine PVL teams

The Prime Volleyball League encompassed nine franchises, representing cities across India. The new team for the 2024 season is the Delhi Toofans. ^[12]

Team name		City	Captain	Head coach	International players	Team owner	Debut	Ref.
	Ahmedabad Defenders	Ahmedabad, Gujarat	Muthusamy Appavu	Sajjad Hussain S Dakshinamoorthy	Ryan Meehan Rodrigo Villalboa	Bonhomie Sports	2022	[13]
	Bengaluru Torpedoes	Bengaluru, Karnataka	Ranjit Singh	K R Lakshminarayana	Kyle Friend Noah Taitano	Limitless Human Performance	2022	[14]
	Calicut Heroes	Kozhikode, Kerala	Jerome Vinith	Kishor Kumar	David Lee Aaron Koubi	Beacon Sports	2022	[15]
	Chennai Blitz	Chennai, Tamil Nadu	Mohan Ukkrapandian	Chander Singh	Bruno Da Silva Amorim Fernando David Gonzalez	SPP Group	2022	[16]
	Hyderabad Black Hawks	Hyderabad, Telangana	Vipul Kumar	Ruben Wolochin	Henry Bell Cisnero Luis Antonio Arias	GlobalArena6 Sports LLP	2022	[17]
	Kochi Blue Spikers	Kochi, Kerala	Karthik	Dr. M. H. Kumara	Colton Cowell Cody Caldwell	M Liga Sports	2022	[18]
	Mumbai Meteors	Mumbai, Maharashtra		Abhijit Bhattacharya	Hiroshi Centelles Brandon Greenway	Meteor Sports LLP	2023	[19]
	Kolkata Thunderbolts	Kolkata, West Bengal	Ashwal Rai	Sunny Joseph	Matthew August Ian Woo Satterfield	Kolkata Sports Ventures	2022	[20]

Format

PVL 2022

Each team will have 12 players with the provision of a maximum of two reserve players. All teams have a salary purse of ₹ 75 lakhs from which they can pick their team via an auction and player draft. Each team can pick maximum of two International players for ₹25 to ₹30 lakhs while the Indian players are chosen via an auction from the remaining money. The auction was taken place in Kochi on 14 December 2021. Players were divided into five categories with different base prices set for each category – International, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and U-21 players. ^{[21] [22]}

There are a total of 24 matches with each team plays against each other in a single round-robin format with the top 4 teams moving into the Play-Offs. The tournament was earlier scheduled to be held in Kochi but later moved to Hyderabad due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. ^[1] All the matches will be held in Hyderabad at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium.

Tournament seasons and results

PVL season results

Season	Final					Final venue	No. of teams	Ref.
	Winner		Score	Runner-up
2022 Details		Kolkata Thunderbolts	3–0		Ahmedabad Defenders	Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad	7	[23]
2023 Details		Ahmedabad Defenders	3-2		Bengaluru Torpedoes	Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Kochi	8	[24]

Titles by the club

Team	Winners	Runners-up	Playoffs	Years Won	Years Runner-up	Years Playoffs	No. of seasons played
Ahmedabad Defenders	1	1	2	2023	2022	2022,2023	2
Kolkata Thunderbolts	1	0	2	2022	_	2022,2023	2
Bengaluru Torpedoes	0	1	1	_	2023	2023	2
Calicut Heroes	0	0	2	_	_	2022,2023	2
Chennai Blitz	0	0	0	_	_	_	2
Hyderabad Black Hawks	0	0	1	_	_	2022	2
Kochi Blue Spikers	0	0	0	_	_	_	2
Mumbai Meteors	0	0	0	_	_	_	1
Delhi Toofans	0	0	0	_	_	_	0

Marketing Performance

TV viewership increased by a staggering 55%, with a colossal 206 million people tuning in to watch the matches throughout the second season.The PVL also drew equal interest from female audiences with the gender ratio between male and female TV viewers being 58:42. ^[25]

See also

• Sports in India
• Indian Volley League
• Pro Volleyball League

References

1. "India to host its first-ever Prime Volleyball League in Hyderabad". The New Indian Express . Retrieved 2 February 2022.
2. "Prime league launched, VFI not amused". The New Indian Express . Retrieved 16 September 2021.
3. "Prime Volleyball gets backing of 5 original team owners, signs Sony as long-term broadcast partner – Piston Des Sport". Piston Des Sport. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
4. "Prime Volleyball League signs RuPay as title sponsor for 3 years". The Economic Times . Retrieved 25 November 2021.
5. "Pro Volleyball League co-owner to take legal action against VFI". Sportstar . Retrieved 21 November 2019.
6. "VFI terminates contract with Pro Volleyball League co-owners". Sportstar . Retrieved 18 November 2019.
7. "Volleyball league to return in a new avatar sans federation support". The Economic Times . Retrieved 23 June 2021.
8. Nair, Abhijit (14 February 2022). "PVL is illegal, says Federation while announcing Indian Volleyball League". thebridge.in. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
9. Preechachan (4 October 2022). "VOLLEYBALL WORLD TO STREAM THE RUPAY PRIME VOLLEYBALL LEAGUE GLOBALLY". Asian Volleyball Confederation. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
10. BE STAFF (10 October 2022). "PhonePe acquires team Mumbai Meteors for Prime Volleyball 2023". ET Brand Equity.com. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
11. ANI (14 December 2023). "Delhi Toofans join Prime Volleyball League for season 3". aninews.in. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
12. ANI (14 December 2023). "Delhi Toofans join Prime Volleyball League for season 3". aninews.in. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
13. "Ahmedabad Defenders | Prime Volleyball League Team". PrimeVolleyballLeague.com.
14. "Bengaluru Torpedoes | Prime Volleyball League Team". PrimeVolleyballLeague.com.
15. "Calicut Heroes | Prime Volleyball League Team". PrimeVolleyballLeague.com.
16. "Chennai Blitz | Prime Volleyball League Team". PrimeVolleyballLeague.com.
17. "Hyderabad Black Hawks | Prime Volleyball League Team". PrimeVolleyballLeague.com.
18. "Kochi Blue Spikers | Prime Volleyball League Team". PrimeVolleyballLeague.com.
19. BE STAFF (10 October 2022). "PhonePe acquires team Mumbai Meteors for Prime Volleyball 2023". ET Brand Equity.com. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
20. "Kolkata Thunderbolts | Prime Volleyball League Team". PrimeVolleyballLeague.com.
21. "Prime Volleyball League 2021 Auctions: Full list of players sold in auction". Sportstar . Retrieved 14 December 2021.
22. Rayan, Stan (13 December 2021). "Prime Volleyball League to be held in Kochi in 2022". sportstar.thehindu.com. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
23. "2022 Fixtures and Results | Prime Volleyball League". PrimeVolleyballLeague.com.
24. "Prime Volleyball League 2023 final result and score".
25. Preechachan (17 April 2023). "INDIA'S RUPAY PRIME VOLLEYBALL LEAGUE'S SECOND SEASON A MAJOR SUCCESS WITH TV VIEWERSHIP OF 206 MILLION". Asian Volleyball Confederation. Retrieved 22 April 2023.

External links

• Official website (in English)
• Volleybox (in English)