[3] The nine cities shortlisted were: Chennai, Cuttack, Dharamshala, Indore, Nagpur, Pune, Rajkot, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam.
[4] The new franchises were allocated using a reverse auction process, with companies which bid the lowest share of the central revenue pool becoming the owners of the new teams.
[5] On 1 December 2012, it was announced that New Rising, a company led by Sanjiv Goenka, and Intex Technologies had won the bidding rights to the two new teams.
[5] On 6 April 2016, amid a severe drought situation in the state of Maharashtra,[7] in which three venues (Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur) were supposed to host a total of 20 IPL matches in the 2016 season, the Bombay High Court questioned the "criminal wastage"[8] of water being supplied to the three stadiums in a response to a petition from the Lok Satta Movement NGO.
[9][11] The High Court filed a public interest litigation and suggested shifting matches to "some other state where water is in abundance."
[7] On 8 April, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis declared that potable water will not be supplied to the venues and added "even if IPL matches are shifted, we have no problem.
"[8] On 9 April, hours before the season's opening match, the Mumbai Cricket Association claimed that the water being used at the Wankhede Stadium was bought from private operators and not Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
[10][13][14] The court later allowed a match scheduled for 1 May to take place in Pune due to logistical difficulties with moving the fixture.
[16] After the Mumbai Indians selected Jaipur as their alternative venue, a petition was filed in the city which stated hosting IPL matches "will add unnecessary burden on the scarce natural resource.
[21] Dwayne Bravo, a member of the West Indies' 2016 World Twenty20 winning team, performed the "Champion Dance", which, according to the IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, was supposed to be the "special attraction" of the ceremony.
[24] The drought situation in Maharashtra led to a ruling in the Bombay High Court that games to be played in the state, including in Pune and Mumbai, in May would have to be moved to other regions to allow water supplies to be prioritised.
[10] On 29 April 2016, the IPL Governing Council announced that all homes games of the Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants after 2 May 2016, would be held at Visakhapatnam.
[32][33] According to a report in the Economic Times, the season's opening matches at Delhi, Mohali and Kolkata had an average attendance of 60% each, while the first game at Hyderabad had a 50% crowd turnout.