NBA Europe: Plans advance for league with London and Manchester teams
The NBA has announced it will step up plans to launch a European basketball league in conjunction with world governing body Fiba by holding further talks with prospective teams and owners next month.
The project has been in discussion for months, with NBA top brass meeting existing European clubs and would-be investors during a summer European roadshow that also saw them meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Since then the NBA has engaged JPMorgan and the Raine Group to assess appetite for new franchises in cities including London, Manchester and Paris.
“Our conversations with various stakeholders in Europe have reinforced our belief that an enormous opportunity exists around the creation of a new league on the continent,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
“Together with Fiba, we look forward to engaging prospective clubs and ownership groups that share our vision for the game’s potential in Europe.”
NBA Europe, as the project has been unofficially dubbed, is set to be a semi-closed league, with the majority of teams permanent members and a handful of spaces available via Fiba’s Basketball Champions League or an end-of-season qualifying tournament.
Organisers say the competition will align with domestic leagues and international schedules to ensure that players can still represent their clubs and national teams.
“Advancing further this joint NBA-Fiba project is great news for the European basketball community,” said Fiba secretary general Andreas Zagklis.
“The format of the league respects European sport model principles by offering any ambitious club in the continent a fair pathway to the top.
“The project is conceived in a way that will improve the sustainability of the entire European basketball ecosystem, including players, clubs, leagues and national federations, by generating a knock-on effect that will strongly benefit basketball fans throughout Europe.”
NBA Europe buy-in quoted at $500m-$1bn
NBA chiefs believe that their expertise can help to realise , which is hugely popular in some countries but lacks a high-profile presence in major markets including the UK.
EuroLeague, whose own pan-continental basketball competition would be threatened by the NBA’s entry, has insisted a new league is “not needed”, while there remain questions about NBA Europe’s prospective launch date of 2027.
Franchises based in London and Manchester would be new teams rather than those currently playing in domestic Super League Basketball, with Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly and Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi owners among those linked to the project.
Paris Saint-Germain owner Qatar Sports Investments has also held detailed talks about entering a team in the French capital.
The buy-in price of $500m-$1bn per franchise said to have been quoted by the NBA and its advisers is believed to have raised eyebrows, however, with football club owners in particular believing they offer brand value and reach that NBA Europe needs.