Pro Volleyball League (PVL) was a professional men's indoor volleyball league in India. The inaugural season took place in February 2019. The league was an initiative between the

Volleyball Federation of India The Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) is the governing body of volleyball in India. History The Volleyball Federation of India was formed in the year 1951. Prior to the formation of the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI), the game was contro ...

, Head Digital Works Pvt. Ltd. and

Baseline Ventures Baseline Ventures is a venture capital investment firm that focuses on seed and growth-stage investments in technology companies. The company was the first seed investor in Instagram, an early investor of Twitter and has been called "one of Silic ...

. The inaugural season of the league was won by Chennai Spartans. Later in the year 2022 the league was rebranded as

Prime Volleyball League Prime Volleyball League (PVL), also known as RuPay Prime Volleyball League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's Volleyball, indoor volleyball league in India. The inaugural season took place in February 2022. The league is an initia ...

Structure

The Pro Volleyball League encompassed six franchises, representing cities across

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. All teams filed tenders with

, listing the two cities they would be interested in bidding for. The teams were officially announced at a press conference in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Teams

Format

Each team will have 12 players with the provision of a maximum of two reserve players. All teams have a salary purse of lakhs from which they pick their team via an auction and player draft. Players are divided into five categories – International Icons, Indian Icons, Sr. Indian Internationals, Nationals, and U-21 players. The International Icon players are picked through a draft process while the Indian players are chosen via an auction. Ranjit Singh of Punjab emerged as the top pick in Season 1. Ahmedabad Defenders shelled out lakhs for him at the auction. There were a total of 18 matches in Season 1. Each team plays against each other in a round-robin format with the top 4 teams moving into the Semi-Finals. In Season 1, matches were held in

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium and in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Season 1

The first season started on 2 February 2019 and concluded on 22 February 2019.

Fixtures

References