Ex-IPL Chairman Lalit Modi had suggested the management of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), which was sold to Aditya Birla Group-led consortium for ₹16,800 crore, to "scrap one-to-one negotiations". "You've a unicorn...do an open auction...with a two-billion benchmark (around ₹18,800 crore)," he said. He claimed many US-based funds asked him how to acquire a stake in the franchise.