Hockey India CEO Elena Norman has called for patience among Hockey India League franchise owners following the withdrawal of two teams ahead of the third edition.

Mumbai Magicians were the first to withdraw and were soon followed by winners of the inaugural edition, Ranchi Rhinos. Both cited financial concerns as the key reasons for their decision. In their absence, a Pune franchise is set to make its debut while a new owner has been recognised for a Mumbai-based team.

“We’ve tried to give as many rights to the franchises as possible so that they can put their own commercial programme together. But you have to look towards the model where you have to be in for the longer duration than an immediate set up,” Norman said.

As it stands, Hockey India will organise the event with six teams rather than the eight earlier promised by the governing body secretary general Narinder Batra. Nonetheless, Norman has expressed her optimism of a late entry into the six-team event. “Lots of people are approaching us. The only limitation now is if things will happen before the league. We still have a little time, but we’re getting to the phase where we will need to move ahead with whatever we have. We may have about six weeks or two months before we start finalising things,” she added..

Norman is confident of being able to facilitate the introduction of new teams before the tentative end-October or early-November deadline. In turn, she mentions that Hockey India has set a target of bringing in eight teams by 2016, and 10 teams by 2018.