By Joe Vardon, Adam Crafton and Mike Vorkunov
Commissioner Adam Silver will pitch the NBA Board of Governors his early sketches of a plan to start a new pro basketball league in Europe as early as 2026, sources with direct knowledge of Silver’s deliberations with potential stakeholders told The Athletic.
The venture could include 16 teams, deep-pocketed investors, some defectors from the established EuroLeague and new franchises in major markets like Paris and London.
Silver is set to present to the NBA Board of Governors in New York on Thursday after months of preliminary talks with existing European club teams, potential investors — including owners of mega soccer franchises on the continent — and FIBA, the international governing body for basketball that would be Silver’s partner in a new league.
There are no deals yet between the NBA and, well, anyone, two high-placed league officials told The Athletic. Silver is, essentially, looking for permission from his bosses (the NBA’s 30 owners) to move forward in making a new league happen.
“The process is just beginning,” one high-ranking NBA official said.
Though planning is still in its early stages, Silver’s effort has advanced enough for Andreas Zagklis, secretary general of FIBA, who is based just outside of Geneva, to travel to New York for the board of governors’ meeting. Zagklis is not expected to be a part of Silver’s initial presentation, but will be able to answer governors’ questions.
Asked for comment, NBA spokesman Mike Bass issued this statement: “At this week’s NBA Board of Governors meeting, the league will report on its exploration of a new men’s basketball league in Europe, in partnership with FIBA.”
Silver and the NBA have been building up to this for months. He spent several days in Paris in January meeting with potential stakeholders in the league and people across European basketball. Afterward, he said the league’s March board meeting would prove decisive in the league’s path forward.
No vote is expected Thursday, but if Silver gets approval to continue, his new European league would include a mix of rights-holding franchises and slots for teams to play their way in by performing well in their national league or FIBA’s Basketball Champions League.
The league’s funding model would be expected to include league ownership stakes for team investors, sources involved in the discussions said, but a high-ranking NBA official called recent reports of a $500 million buy-in to the new league “pure speculation.”
Sources on both sides of the Atlantic with knowledge of the NBA’s early talks are watching four existing EuroLeague franchises — Real Madrid, Barca Barcelona, ASVEL Basket of Villeurbanne, of which former NBA superstar Tony Parker is team president, and Fenerbahçe Istanbul — as potential defectors to Silver’s league. Parker did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment, and neither did a EuroLeague official.
Adam Silver talks with then-San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker in 2014. (Soobum Im / Imagn Images)
A new team could emerge in the Paris market, owned by the Qatar Sports Investments, which owns soccer giant Paris Saint-Germain. The 2024 Olympic host city already counts as its own Paris Basketball, which plays in the French national league and the EuroLeague, and has home games at both of the city’s large basketball arenas.
“QSI has been approached with regards to a basketball franchise in Paris in relation to which we have expressed an interest,” a spokesman for QSI said.
The NBA is considering placing franchises in other major markets across Europe, including in cities where current pro franchises already exist, like London, Manchester, Berlin and Munich.
The London market, or more broadly, the United Kingdom, is another place where the NBA could attract big soccer dollars from Middle Eastern sovereign funds. Manchester City’s multibillion-dollar soccer franchise is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, through the Abu Dhabi United Group out of the United Arab Emirates. The chairman of Manchester City is another Emirati, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, whose brother, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, runs the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism.
The Al Mubarak family has expressed interest in NBA ownership, though sovereign wealth funds currently cannot own more than 20 percent of any NBA franchise.
A new basketball league in Europe would face immediate competition from the EuroLeague, widely considered the second-best basketball competition in the world after the NBA. The NBA tried to partner with the EuroLeague in the past, but the EuroLeague rejected those advances, according to multiple NBA and EuroLeague sources briefed on the conversations. The EuroLeague is in a state of uncertainty as European basketball executives wonder how the NBA would impact its future.
For years, FIBA and the existing EuroLeague have clashed over issues ranging from the scheduling of national team events during EuroLeague seasons to how the continental league is run. Silver, meanwhile, has long been interested in European soccer and has cited an untapped marketing potential for basketball on the continent. Though the economics of European basketball are not considered to be strong, and the NBA could enter a potentially fragmented marketplace, Silver has been bullish about its chances.
“I recognize there’s enormous history and tradition here in European basketball, and we want to respect those traditions,” Silver said in Paris in January. “Obviously, the United States is used to closed leagues; Europe is used to open leagues with promotion, regulation, etc. So we’re looking at all those facets.
“But having had this long history from our operation of sports leagues, largely in the United States and a little bit elsewhere, seeing what’s happened in Europe, not just in basketball but in soccer, as well, it gives us the opportunity to say, all right, let’s take a fresh look; what are the most effective practices for creating a commercially viable league.”
(Top photo: Stephanie Lecocq / Reuters via Imagn Images)
