New Delhi, March 3: The eight Indian Premier League (IPL) franchisees, who are unhappy with the BCCI's decision to halve the prize money corpus to Rs 25 crore, will soon meet to decide the course of action over the board's "unexpected" move.

BCCI austerity drive: IPL 2020 champions' prize money halved

While the prize money to be distributed among the top-four teams stays at Rs 50 crore, the play-off standing fund to be distributed among the franchisees has been slashed from Rs 50 crore to Rs 25 crore. On top of that, they will have to pay Rs 50 lakh to state associations for hosting an IPL game, an increase of Rs 20 lakh. The IPL 2020 begins on March 29.

"We are unhappy that the play-off standing fund has been halved. We were not even consulted. The franchisees have been discussing it informally and will soon have a formal meeting to discuss the issue," an official from a South-based franchise told PTI.

The winning franchise now stands to earn Rs 10 crore from the play-off standing fund as compared to Rs 25 crore earlier, runners-up Rs 6.25 crore instead of Rs 12.5 crore and Rs 4.3 crore each for teams which finish third and fourth (earlier it was Rs 6.25 crore).

"It is a big hit. We are discussing it internally as well as with other teams. All the teams are meeting soon to discuss it," said an official from another franchise. Defending champions Mumbai Indians host Chennai Super Kings in the IPL opener at Wankhede Stadium on March 29.