The launch of NBA Europe has been pushed back by 12 months to 2028. A pre-qualifying competition will be held next year to find four temporary teams that will join the 16-team league’s first season alongside 12 permanent franchises.
The NBA plans to invest about $10bn (£7.6bn) over 10 years in what sources describe as the biggest startup competition in sports history. It has reportedly received multiple offers for the 12 franchises that exceed its targets, with prices for the London franchise expected to range from $500m to over $1bn.
Many of the winning bids are expected to come from owners of football clubs that play in the Champions League. Deputy commissioner Mark Tatum held talks last week with senior executives from Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Milan.
London, Manchester, Rome, Athens, Istanbul and Lyon will also receive permanent franchises, with four qualifiers from European basketball’s existing structure filling the remaining spots.
The London franchise is understood to have drawn several bids over $1bn from notable investors, including former Chelsea chair Todd Boehly, a consortium involving former Tottenham chair Daniel Levy and MSP Sports Capital, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Buss Sports Capital, the US investment group that sold its 17.8% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers to Joshua Kushner this year, is believed to have made an offer for the Manchester franchise. However, City Football Group (CFG) has not bid, despite its close ties to the NBA, which has agreed to set up a new global academy in Abu Dhabi as part of a $300m partnership.
While the NBA has not committed to a timeline, it is understood the league hopes to announce the new franchise owners this year.
“We’ve got people who are well-capitalised investors who don’t own any basketball franchise, but they want to get into basketball,” Tatum said at last week’s general assembly of European Football Clubs.
“We’ve got existing basketball clubs in the ecosystem that have submitted bids, and we have football clubs, some that already have their own basketball teams, and some that don’t and want to get involved in basketball.”
The level of the bids suggests the NBA has won over some of Europe’s biggest football clubs and powerful US institutional investors, but it continues to face resistance from within basketball.
At a meeting at Lake Como this week, EuroLeague clubs voted to reject the NBA’s initial investment offer and instead pursue their own plans to expand from 20 to 24 clubs. NBA sources insist talks will continue.
“Our vision for basketball is to bring everybody with us – EuroLeague, the governing body, Fiba and the clubs – to revamp the European basketball scene,” Tatum said. “One of the things that we’ve learned from European football is the power of the pyramid. In football every single club understands the clear pathway to play at the top level. That doesn’t exist in basketball.”
The NBA decided during the summer to seek a partnership with EuroLeague rather than go it alone, settling on a hybrid model that represents both European and North American sporting cultures.
In a structure that echoes football’s toxic and quickly abandoned European Super League (ESL), NBA Europe will have 12 permanent members, with four temporary members admitted each year.
While the promotion mechanism is still to be confirmed, NBA sources say there will be two entry routes: the top two ranked teams from a new second-tier European competition.A competition called the Basketball Champions League, and two finalists in a separate tournament for all of Europe’s domestic champions. In another move toward greater upward mobility, the highest-ranked non-franchise club that reaches the end-of-season playoffs would keep its place in NBA Europe the next season, while the other three would be sent back to the play-in competition. This would likely mean a regular turnover of entrants outside the permanent 12.
While there are billions of reasons big European football clubs want a slice of the NBA, some are suspected of having ulterior motives.
Several sources involved in the discussions said Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, seems particularly invested in NBA Europe, eager to establish the principle of a semi-closed league in Europe in case the prospect of a breakaway football league returns.
Real only formally withdrew from the ESL last year, four years after the project collapsed, and their commercial partners A22 continue to pursue Fifa and Uefa in the courts for allegedly abusing their dominant position by banning clubs from signing up.
The Madrid commercial court and Spain’s high court of justice have both ruled in Real’s favour over the past two years, with Pérez seemingly determined to keep the club’s options open.
“Florentino has been very involved in NBA Europe,” a senior source at a EuroLeague club said. “He wants it to happen quickly and is constantly asking for updates.
“The Super League may be dead for now, but it’s not difficult to imagine a world where the biggest Champions League clubs demand permanent qualification and try to restrict access. A semi-closed Champions League would protect them from domestic failure, so NBA Europe could be very useful.”
Despite the club staying out of the auction, the Manchester City issue remains a potential complication for the NBA, however, as CFG are 50% owners alongside Oak View Group of Manchester’s biggest arena, the 23,000-capacity Co-op Live, which has been earmarked as the most likely venue. A regular-season NBA game between San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans will be staged there in January.
Florentino Pérez, the Real Madrid president, is taking a keen interest in NBA Europe. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
“We want to bring on partners who are going to invest in basketball development,” Tatum said. “Academies, indoor arenas. When you think about all of Europe there’s probably only a handful of what I would consider world-class indoor arenas. These arenas provide an economic engine to cities, but we don’t have that in Europe. And so that is the investment that we’re looking to create.”
Tatum has close relations with CFG, whose chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, has been a basketball fan since attending a Boston Celtics game while studying at Tufts University in the 1990s.
Al-Mubarak has played an important role in forging a relationship between the NBA and Abu Dhabi’s department of culture and tourism, culminating in a nine-year partnership that for the last four years has led to NBA pre-season games in Abu Dhabi.
That deal will remain in place despite the fallout from Manchester City being found guilty by an independent commission of more than 100 charges of financial cheating, although the NBA may be slightly relieved that the club is not part of the franchise bidding process.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs NBA Europes 10 Billion Plan
1 What is NBA Europe
Its the NBAs plan to launch a new professional basketball league in Europe backed by a reported 10 billion investment
2 Why are football clubs lining up to join
Big European football clubs already have huge fan bases stadiums and brands Joining lets them tap into a new sport and a new revenue stream without starting from scratch
3 Whos behind the money
The NBA is partnering with major investors including sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms to fund the leagues launch and growth
4 Which football clubs are interested
Clubs like Real Madrid FC Barcelona Manchester City and Paris SaintGermain have been linked to the project though nothing is finalized
5 How would the league work
Details are still being worked out but the idea is a franchisestyle league with teams in major European cities similar to the NBA model in the US
6 When would it start
Reports point to a launch in the next few years possibly by 2026 or 2027 but no official date has been confirmed
7 Why is the NBA doing this
Basketball is already popular in Europe but the NBA sees room to grow A dedicated European league could boost revenue viewership and talent development
8 Whats in it for the football clubs
New revenue yearround stadium use and a chance to grow their global brand beyond football
9 Whats in it for fans
More highlevel basketball local teams to support and potentially more affordable access than traveling to NBA games in the US
10 Will this replace existing European basketball leagues
Probably not Its more likely to compete with or sit alongside leagues like the EuroLeague and Spains ACB
11 What happens to the EuroLeague
It could face pressure to compete for teams players and TV money Some clubs might leave for the new league
12 How will this affect player salaries
More money in the system usually means higher salaries especially for top European players who might otherwise go to the NBA
13 Will NBA players join
Some might especially those nearing the end of their careers or wanting to play closer to home Younger stars will likely still aim for the NBA
