Exclusive: Liverpool and Telegraph owner RedBird working on NBA Europe
Telegraph Media Group owner and Liverpool FC investor RedBird Capital Partners is working with the NBA on its plans to launch a European basketball league, Morning Wire can reveal.
RedBird, which also owns Italian football giants AC Milan, is playing a prominent role in wooing potential investors and partners in the venture at an exclusive meeting in London today.
Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of the US firm with an estimated $14bn assets under management, and operating partner Zlatan Ibrahimovic are both speaking at the event.
Cardinale is taking part in a session at the event billed as “The Impact of NBA Europe”, while Ibrahimovic is involved in a fireside chat on the NBA’s wider cultural resonance.
The NBA hopes to use the event to persuade major global brands to sign up as foundational partners of its proposed 16-team European league, slated for launch late next year.
London and Manchester, as well as Paris, Milan, Rome, Berlin and Munich, have been pencilled in for teams in the semi-open competition, which would have 12 permanent members and four spaces open for qualification each year.
The NBA and its advisors, JP Morgan and the Raine Group, are said to be seeking an entry price for franchises of between $500m and $1bn.
RedBird is “very interested” in acquiring one of the new franchises, sourfces with knowledge of the situation said. Milan would seem the most likely location, given the firm’s existing connection through football.
RedBird, Liverpool, Milan, Telegraph and NBA
It has owned AC Milan since acquiring it from Elliott Advisors in 2022 and appointed club legend Ibrahimovic to the board of RedBird in 2023 following his retirement from playing.
RedBird has been an indirect owner of Liverpool since 2021, when it bought a minority stake in Fenway Sports Group, which holds the current Premier League champions.
It also has a stake in Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox and ice hockey team the Pittsburgh Penguins through its investment in FSG.
RedBird IMI, a joint venture between the fund and Abu Dhabi, acquired Telegraph Media Group in 2023 but RedBird Capital Partners’ attempt to take control last year was blocked by the UK government amid concerns over foreign state ownership.
It has since agreed to sell the company to Daily Mail owner DMGT last month but the transaction is still in the process of being completed.
The NBA summit today in London comes hours after the league played its first game in the capital for seven years on Sunday night at the O2.