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Amid reports that the NBA offered roughly $581M to buy EuroLeague -- and dangled entry fees of about $447M for EuroLeague teams to join NBA Europe -- sources said senior NBA leadership attended London’s Ballon d’Or Monday night and potentially held advanced discussions with several potential franchises.
Regardless, sources believe a topic in London could be the price points of joining the league, which are only now coming to light. Sport reported Sunday that the NBA offered €520 (the equivalent of $581.41M) to purchase the 13-team EuroLeague, which boils down to €40 per franchise. At the same time, Sport reported that instead of paying $500M to $1B to permanently join NBA Europe, the NBA would allow its preferred EuroLeague teams to pay €400 (or $447M) -- a presumed discount.
A crucial week is ahead for the NBA Europe project, according to reports from across Europe and information from Eurohoops sources. As Sky Sports reported, a meeting is expected in London, where the Ballon d’Or ceremony will be held on Monday.
Battersea Power Station’s undeveloped estate is being considered as a potential arena site for a London team in the NBA’s planned European competition, sources with knowledge of discussions told The Athletic. The NBA is targeting autumn 2027 for the launch of a 16-team competition in Europe, with London among 12 cities expected to host permanent franchises.
For those first dozen teams, the group is speaking with bidders in Athens, Greece; Barcelona, Spain; Berlin; Istanbul; London; Lyon, France; Madrid, Spain; Manchester, England; Milan; Munich; Paris; and Rome. “We’re extremely encouraged by the final bids we received for permanent franchises,” Mark Tatum, NBA deputy commissioner, said in a statement. “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. We will now work with the NBA and FIBA Boards to finalize the long-form agreements.”
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The permanent franchise sales will produce billions in capital, with some bids involving London and Paris already topping $1 billion, sources said. While the NBA hasn’t finalized exactly how that money will be divvied up, the majority of it will be used to fund the league’s upfront costs and early operations, the people said. That includes team distributions, reserves, marketing capital and staffing. A portion could also be distributed to existing NBA owners as a dividend of sorts.
NBA Europe’s central revenue will include bigger media packages, league-wide sponsorships, merchandise and licensing opportunities, and perhaps some infrastructure projects. Those revenues will be largely transferred back to the teams, essentially via a preferred distribution, the sources said. Initially, more than 80% will go to teams via a fixed payment made to all clubs (similar to the NFL’s annual distributions) and a performance pool, which will filter more money to teams based on their on-court success.
Daniel Levy, the former Tottenham Hotspur Football Club chairman, is eyeing a fresh elite sports role as part of a consortium trying to buy the London franchise in a new European basketball league. Sky News has learnt that Mr Levy, who left the Premier League club last September after nearly 25 years at the helm, has joined a bid for the NBA Europe London team being assembled by Jahm Najafi, an executive at MSP Sports Capital, and Liberty Global, the owner of Formula E motor racing.
The majority-owner of Formula E motor racing has tabled an offer to buy a London-based franchise that would participate in a new European basketball league being set up by America's National Basketball Association (NBA). I have learnt that Liberty Global, which controls a vast portfolio of media, telecoms and entertainment assets, tabled an offer ahead of a deadline last week set by advisers to the NBA. Sources said the US-based company had expressed its interest in partnership with either MSP Sports Capital or Jahm Najafi, one of MSP's founders. MSP reaped a spectacular financial return from a previous investment it had made in McLaren Racing, while Mr Najafi has been an investor in and vice-chairman of the NBA's Phoenix Suns team.
Silver wants to put new teams in London, Paris, Rome, and Manchester, England, backed by soccer giants and the biggest investment funds in the world (the Saudi PIF has expressed interest). Existing clubs with similar financial backing are being targeted in Barcelona and Madrid, in Milan, in Athens and Istanbul, Berlin and Munich, and Lyon, France. If Silver is (and in all likelihood, he will be) successful in bringing this new league on line, current NBA players said, overwhelmingly, they would consider, some day, playing in NBA Europe. “Yeah, it would interest me a little bit. I think that’s pretty cool,” said Charlotte rookie and Rising Star Kon Knueppel.
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“It’s very difficult to do a lot of things that you need to do to make the sport successful (in London),” Balan had told me much earlier in the day. The words seemed prescient in the moment. “And in order for it to work, the sport needs a catalyst,” Balan said. “I think the NBA and Euroleague’s interest in the U.K. market is going to be a catalyst.”
There are legitimate pro teams in each of those cities already, other than Rome, but not all of those teams may apply for a license. Two high-ranking basketball officials, one with the NBA in the U.S. and another in Europe, said the NBA wants “to start with a clean slate” in London, where it could cost a new team more than $1 billion to obtain a license. “Just walking the streets here and being in the hotels, I hear from people all the time saying, ‘I’m sleep deprived following your league,’ (in the U.S.),” Silver told The Athletic during an interview in London, prior to the Memphis Grizzlies-Orlando Magic game at London’s O2 Arena.
“There are more people approaching us and saying, ‘I’d love to have the London franchise,’ and I think it’s not just because it’s such an attractive market, but because there’s no top-tier basketball team right now,” Silver continued. “So, there’s lots of groups seeing an opportunity to create a new brand here.” For the NBA, the London discussion is one of the sheer size, wealth and untapped basketball potential of the market. There are numerous potential suitors. Soccer powerhouses like Arsenal or Chelsea could create a team. The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund could do it. As could investment firms like Sixth Street.
Following the NBA commissioner’s press conference in Berlin and the subsequent meeting in London, the NBA Europe project appears to be laying its groundwork. “The feeling we have is that this has gotten underway, that this is going to happen,” confirmed Garbajosa himself.