On Tuesday the annual NBA Board of Governors meeting took place and one of the items on the agenda was where things stand with launching NBA Europe. Adam Silver seemed bullish on a new league starting next year. Then later this week the EuroLeague CEO Chris Bueno stated there is still no offer on the table from the NBA, who know the existing league is key to whether NBA Europe gets off the ground. NBA Europe feels inevitable, but a start as soon as October 2027 feels ambitious. As ever when organisations are contemplating power and money, it’s the fans that are left aside in thought. Do they even want this league to happen?
The fact the NBA has been setting sights on a European league for a while isn’t surprising, it’s a continent that is full of NBA fans and taking pre-season and regular season games there has been a success. Multiple countries have rich basketball pedigree and culture through their own domestic leagues, as well as the EuroLeague that brings them together.
The football-like atmosphere seen at Panathanikos, Fenerbahce and Partizan Belgrade to name a few is something the NBA wants to tap into and since we first saw the league speak about NBA Europe, we’ve seen a game of cat and mouse between them and the existing EuroLeague. One minute it feels like a hostile takeover will happen, the next an amicable partnership is going to happen for “the good of the game”. There’s a constant lingering question in the air of who needs who more, with the NBA promising to fix a game that is suggested to be underperforming commercially according to Adam Silver, while also relying on a number of EuroLeague teams jumping ship and paying the large expansion fees entry requires.
Ambitious timetables
Now I’ve never built a professional sports league from scratch but I’m pretty sure getting one started where you need to either takeover the running of another league (which is what the NBA wants to do even if they ‘partner’ with EuroLeague), or attract teams away from said another league and then top it up with new teams starting from scratch is unlikely in 13 months.
Looking at some recent expansions in basketball support this.
In the WNBA, Golden State Valkyries took at least 20 months, the Toronto Tempo approximately 26 months and Portland Fire 29 months from the moment ownership groups announced their intention to playing the first games.
In the NBA we have to go further back when the Oklahoma City Thunder launched in 2008, which was a controversial relocation from Seattle where conversations began the moment the Supersonics were sold in 2006. A team returning to Seattle and one launching in Las Vegas is happening with the awarding to ownership groups expected by the end of the year and playing the first games in either 2028 or 2029.
Based on those examples, we’re looking at around two years to launch teams, so a league that requires 16 teams to make up the proposed format is very ambitious. New teams launching in London, Paris and Milan, where there are already existing teams playing domestically and in European competition, adds conflict as much as complexity in creating teams and growing new fanbases.
How will things move forward?
A lot has to happen in the next 13 months. The pressing issue is whether this is a partnership with the EuroLeague? Are they really going to concede all power and control to the NBA? There’s massive marketing and commercial benefits in doing so, which the EuroLeague could do better on currently.
Teams across EuroLeague don’t make loads of revenue, a lot of teams lose money. NBA Europe promises riches, but the cost to enter is higher than any of the teams make across a decade. The biggest name Real Madrid are supported by the wider football club and sporting organisation, but does it make sense for an established powerhouse to pay the proposed 500 million euros expansion fee? That’s more than 3 times their estimated revenue of the last decade.
If the NBA can’t make a deal with EuroLeague and has to prize teams away, is the high expansion fee and fleeing from the history and legacy created in Europe worth it? How long do contractual disputes over exits take to settle?
Only then do we start getting into the detail over how the league will come to life and be governed, the shape of commercial models and deals, the need to develop excitement for it across Europe. For the new teams starting from scratch, arena’s need to be rented in the short term, built in the long, rosters need building and fan bases created.
Fans receptiveness
I assume the NBA have done some research into whether fans want this league and will support it? Or are they just basing this on fans in Europe watching the game across their media rights and NBA League pass? Looking at the social stats and attendance of games that have played in Europe? Could there be an arrogance that sticking an NBA logo on an existing basketball culture happening in EuroLeague and applying the marketing and commercial power to it will do the job?
Who does the NBA want to attract to the league? Is it turning existing NBA fans in Europe to pick teams to support if they’re not already following a team domestically? Is it latent fans that have had interest in the global games or its cultural crossover? Are existing fanbases following their EuroLeague teams receptive to the NBA?
Real Madrid fan groups released a statement urging the club not to join as NBA Europe doesn’t offer a strong basketball tradition. Plenty of threads on Reddit express disinterest and confusion over how the league would take shape. I was an event in London recently and asking people about it I was taken back at the indifference. The interest came if there would be a knock-on effect in grassroots development.
For me personally, I’ve been following the NBA for 30 years now. I watch nearly every Orlando Magic game (first thing in the morning usually) via League Pass. Personally, I don’t have the bandwidth to suddenly start following a new London or Manchester NBA team, I’m not following either of those cities’ current teams and take a passing interest in the domestic league, which is always filled with organisational drama and a lower standard than EuroLeague which I will keep an eye on. I would love to see the game in the UK become stronger and see teams be competitive in Europe, so maybe the NBA can help the UK more than it might impact countries who already have better standard leagues and supported teams. I can’t speak for every type of basketball fan in the UK but the bandwidth to support another team is likely going to be an issue. Would it make more sense to back the existing Manchester Basketball and London Lions teams?
Is NBA Europe inevitable?
The NBA has the power and money to make this happen. You only have to look at the interest from 20 groups making bids for the 12 cities NBA is targeting, with some bids topping $1 billion. The NBA, like any sports league, club or organisation is always searching for growth and Europe offers a big opportunity for that. The continent has produced not just starter level calibre players for the NBA, but MVP winners. EuroLeague has a passionate culture fans want protect, yet the historic clubs are exactly what the NBA needs to make this venture look legitimate. This could get messier and more complicated as a decision on what direction the NBA and EuroLeague takes has to happen soon. The key to what happens will be Chris Bueno, the EuroLeague CEO appointed in January, who once spent 12 years working for the NBA, yet so far the appointment of a familiar face hasn’t made it an easy lay up for NBA to get this off the ground.
I think NBA Europe will happen at some point in some shape or form, but can a version of EuroLeague with NBA branding work and satisfy fans of those teams and attract newer fans? New teams will be created but more may be needed if the NBA goes it alone and can only attract a certain number of defectors. Can excitement be created for the new teams who will need to entice players from somewhere, likely to be players who have fallen out of the NBA, rather than ones looking to get there. Fans might flock to Berlin, Paris or London to see a Franz Wagner, Victor Wembanyama or Ja Morant once a year, will they regularly show up for a Cole Anthony, Markelle Fultz or Robert Covington?
A VIVRANT FIELD REPORT
I made another field report video, this time exploring UK Basketball Culture at the Ball Out 3x3 tournament in London.
ALSO CATCHING THE EYE…
HOW SPORT IS EXPERIENCED
ESPN reported record viewing for the US Open final, with the Men’s Championship match between Ben Shelton and Alexander Zverev generating an average audience of 3.2 million viewers and 4.0 million at peak, their largest since televising the tournament in 2009. Saturday’s Women’s Championship match between Elena Rybakina over Aryna Sabalenka, averaged 2.7 million viewers, peaking at 3.2 million.
FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup was the most attended ever. Team USA won the final in Berlin, against France and a total of 236,015 fans attended the tournament, surpassing the previous record of 145,519 spectators in Sydney in 2022.
NFL creators can’t show the game feed, but they can now show the next best thing, animations. Through Fan.Live and the Creator Sports Network, creators have a new way to provide commentary via 22 3D cartoon models recreating players’ positions in close to real time using location data from chips embedded in each athlete’s pads.
The Hollywood Reporter has a special sports issue out and one of the articles is about the race for cities to turn sports into an economic and cultural platform that can reinvent the economy and attract new visitors.
Singles night out, a rom-com series and Hooked App events are seeing sports teams play matchmaker.
HOW SPORT IS MARKETED
Everyone has given their opinion on that ad this week. You don’t need another take. I do recommend reading this from the Athletic.
adidas Basketball and Anthony Edwards have been on a roll with how they’ve marketed the the first two iterations of the AE and it continues for the new AE3, as ‘Ant Man’ shows off his comedy skills and takes shots at his rivals.
72andSunny Los Angeles have created the NASCAR Swear Jar, where every swear word uttered by a driver in the post-season will see $5 added to the jar which fans can have a chance to win.
Wrexham and front of shirt sponsor Firefox talk about privacy with a riff on the whole Spygate scandal, ahead of their game with Southampton.
NB2K27 launches with a mixtape of content rather than one traditional ad, this video shows Derrick Rose galvanising players ahead of MyPlayer Orientation.
ESPN kick off their road to the SuperBowl campaign.
HOW SPORT EVOLVES
Kylian Mbappé has made the move to On, a major coup for them and what a way to make your entrance into football. Read Daniel-Yaw Miller’s scoop on the details from the first reporting to the signing announcement. I previously wrote how a potential move should hopefully be an opportuntity for a true signature football at some stage. The first boot Mbappé will wear is something Thierry Henry has been working on over the last year, in his director of football role but I hope now the Real Madrid striker is on board this is something we’ll see in the future.
The conditions for a move like this have been bubbling for a while as in recent years footballers have felt comfortable leaving the establishment of Nike, adidas and Puma, as they trade scale and seek more control and focus. Harry Kane leaving Nike for Skechers, Bukayo Saka leaving adidas for New Balance and Antoine Griezmann leaving Puma for Kipsta are just some examples in football, which follows what has been happening across sports. Steph Curry famously left the swoosh for Under Armour to create his own Curry brand, Simone Biles left Nike for Athleta, Dwayne Wade from Jordan to Li-Ning to become a stakeholder. Then the move which really set the wheels in motion for the eventual swoop for Mbappé, was when Roger Federer moved to On with a 3% equity stake.
Interesting read! If the take-over is in name only, this is doomed to fail. Renaming EuroLeague and slapping an NBA logo on it will not suddenly attract thousands of extra fans. I would actually love to write one of my systems essays on this topic.