Last year the North American branch of the League of Legends Championship Series received a big change in the form of franchising, and now a new report by ESPN reveals that this is coming to the European competition as well, along with revenue sharing, according to alleged league sources.
As a part of this change, relegation will be completely removed, and this is because teams will now become partners of the league, with agreements lasting three years. Applications have apparently already been opened, with buy-in prices starting at 8 million euros for teams already in the league, raising to 10.5 million to new teams wanting to join. These teams can only be removed, then, if there are consistently poor performances or disciplinary problems.
The revenue pool which is also part of these changes will also be distributed between Riot Games themselves as well as the teams and players, including money from sponsorship, merchandise, media rights, and more. The players will get 35% of this, and 32.5% will be used by Riot, with the remaining 32.5% going to teams.
The minimum salary is being raised as well, as ESPN reports that it will increase from $29,791 USD yearly to $74,749 in 2019, and a development system including things like finance and healthcare will also be introduced.
The three-stage application process will be running throughout the year, with the franchised league then coming in 2019, and interested teams can send applications that detail finances, plans, background information, and much more. Once these are whittled down, stage two of applications start, with these being reviewed by Riot Games staff in Berlin in-person. Between October and December we'll then be finding out the finalised teams. According to the report, several football teams have already shown interest.
Do you think all these changes sound positive?