The main purpose of the IPL is to provide funds to the BCCI, so that they can develop the domestic cricket tournaments. IPL was always a business and will be so for the remainder of its lifespan. They are considering increasing the number of teams to 9, and a number of industry heavyweights (especially Adani and Goenka) are making their moves. Let's see whether the new team will be permitted from 2021 or not.
The real concept was big money and Lalit Modi knew that they could make huge money with it and i am sure he pocketed some and hence he was under the scanner and then in exile and with India winning the inaugural T20 World Cup it was the perfect timing to launch the IPL and it was a big success and the entire franchise format was stolen from the ICL and BCCI along with ICC killed the tournament entire private tournament and BCCI started their own 
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