The league would start in 2027.
Somewhere in some backroom at the National Basketball Association’s office, lawyers and accountants are trying to figure out what investors fit into the NBA’s vision of a new league in Europe. The final bids for the 12 permanent franchises for NBA Europe are in and some investors are willing to put up at least $500 million to more than $1 billion to get into the business. The NBA and the governing body of international basketball, FIBA, want to bring big time basketball to the continent even though there is a pretty good basketball circuit called the EuroLeague. The NBA and FIBA are not Johnny Appleseed spreading basketball across the European continent. The NBA and FIBA see money, lots of it, in setting up a competing league in Europe.
“We are very pleased with the final bids received for the permanent franchises,” said Mark Tatum, deputy commissioner of the NBA. “This will be the biggest influx of capital European basketball has ever seen, and we have clear front-runners in each of our 12 target cities, including many existing basketball and football clubs.” The NBA is targeting a 16-team circuit and has 12 cities in mind. London and Manchester in England, Paris and Lyon in France, Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, Milan and Rome in Italy, Berlin and Munich in Germany and Athens, Greece and Istanbul, Turkey. The Euroleague has been around in one form or another since 1958 and has 18 teams. The NBA also has a problem that was not anticipated. American tariffs. Will Europeans be open to an American business coming to the continent under the present conditions and sentiments? Madrid, Barcelona, Athens are taken but there are plenty of other markets. The NBA is in the business of making money and if it pushes out the EuroLeague to do so, so be it. That’s business.
