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Chus Bueno was asked if the EuroLeague and NBA will find a middle ground by Harris Stavrou of Sport24. "We don't do bad deals," the EuroLeague CEO replied. Bueno then agreed to the proposed idea that the next EuroLeague SuperCup could possibly feature the reigning NBA champions. According to Bueno, EuroLeague club owners are set to discuss "the future of the event" in the upcoming meeting on October 5 in Italy. He revealed that he is waiting to see Olympiacos Piraeus and Panathinaikos Athens leaders there. "I am waiting for Dimitris Giannakopoulos and the Angelopoulos brothers at the EuroLeague meeting."
CEO Chus Bueno said no offer had yet been put to the EuroLeague but NBA commissioner Adam Silver this week said that joining forces with the incumbent was now their preference. EuroLeague’s owners, who include clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Bayern Munich and Fenerbahce, are due to meet early next month and it is understood they will consider any approach from the NBA if it arrives in good time. “We are open to explore collaboration and partnership opportunities on the future of European basketball,” Bueno said in a statement to City AM. “We have not received any offer by NBA as of now but if one arrives, it will be evaluated. In the meantime we continue to progress with our plans to grow EuroLeague.”
Eurohoops: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver confirms willingness to unite with the EuroLeague "We're making progress [withEuroLeague] We believe the league will be strengthened by joining forces with the EuroLeague ... I think we'll all be better off as a unified front in Europe"
Last week, Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport reported the NBA may offer to buy a controlling stake in EuroLeague. A source familiar with the matter tells FOS that EuroLeague is expecting an offer from the NBA, and that if one comes, EuroLeague owners will discuss the proposal during their own meeting, scheduled for Oct. 5.
Throughout my travels in recent weeks, I’ve heard pointed skepticism from various stakeholders in the game abroad questioning whether the NBA is going to be able to launch its new NBA Europe venture next season as Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum have long hoped. The league office, however, staunchly dismissed such suggestions when asked directly on Monday. A league spokesman, in a statement to The Stein Line, said: “We continue to target a rollout beginning in October 2027.”
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Silver has pushed hard for NBA Europe, the league’s initiative that it hopes to open in the fall of 2027. The NBA has vetted multiple candidates for the proposed 16-team league, including 12 permanent members, with bids running from $500 million to as much as $1 billion per team, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions. NBA Europe has been expected to compete with the historic EuroLeague, whose team affiliations with the league run back, in some cases, more than a century.
Jordi Bertomeu worked as EuroLeague's CEO for more than two decades. Spaniard isn't that active in European basketball anymore, but he still voices his opinions on the trending topics from time to time. Speaking for the European Basketball Advisory Group Business Conversations , Bertomeu was asked to talk about the proposed fees for NBA Europe teams. He suggests that valuations do not correspond to the reality: "In my opinion, valuations at the level you mention do not correspond to the reality of basketball in Europe," Bertomeu started.
Jordi Bertomeu: "If it were feasible, the first consequence would be an almost general replacement of the current owners of the clubs by new owners, the investors." "It is obvious that the current clubs do not have the capacity to assume those valuations. And it remains to be seen whether football clubs are willing to make investments of this level for the basketball sections." "If the answer is that the investment will be profitable in the very long term, we must remember that sport is very dynamic and the sports industry also changes easily, so making forecasts for such a long period involves a lot of unpredictability," he said.
The NBA has gone through several rounds of bids and is ready to move forward with a 16-team league with 12 permanent members and four rotating members, starting in 2027. League officials have said there are bidding groups for 12 of those new teams in Europe, with franchises in London and Paris expected to go for $1 billion-plus, per league sources.
Top officials from both the NBA and the Euroleague have said they are prepared to work together or go it alone in what surely would be an unsustainable fragmented system. It could be a seminal showdown and will be a major part of this owners meeting, multiple sources said.
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Milan is at the center of European basketball, also because Olimpia will be responsible for organizing the Euroleague owners' meeting scheduled for October 5th at the prestigious Villa d'Este in Cernobbio, on Lake Como. Unlike the stakeholder board, the owners' council meets rarely when the European basketball strategy needs to be redefined. In this case, they will be asked to evaluate the NBA's potential offer to acquire the Euroleague, which could be tabled after Monday's Board of Governors meeting . Or, conversely, whether to move to the operational phase of the strategy already presented to the clubs by CEO Chus Bueno, involving the league's expansion and transition to a franchise system.
The owners of the EuroLeague's shareholder clubs will meet in Milan on October 5 for a crucial meeting. They will have to decide between an offer from the NBA to buy shares in the competition as part of its NBA Europe project, or the ongoing transformation plan to prepare for the NBA's arrival. With the highly anticipated launch of NBA Europe, the new competition envisioned by the NBA for the Old Continent, just a year away, the owners of the 13 EuroLeague clubs are scheduled to meet in Milan on October 5th for a crucial meeting. As reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport and confirmed by a European source to L'Équipe, the executives will have to decide between two scenarios. On one side, there's an offer from the NBA to buy a stake in the EuroLeague. If accepted, NBA Europe would then be built around the EuroLeague. On the other side, there's the option of rejecting this offer and accepting the future competition from the new competition envisioned by the North American league. The NBA is scheduled to hold a Board of Governors meeting (its decision-making body) in the coming days, and the details of its offer are not yet known.
Vetakis also pointed to a separate NBA meeting scheduled for September 15, where league stakeholders are set to discuss and potentially approve next steps for the project. "I just know that this meeting is taking place on the 15th so that things can move forward," he said. While stressing that he did not have direct reporting from the NBA side, Vetakis suggested that European basketball may eventually need to find a way for the two sides to work together. "I believe the only solution is convergence, for some kind of agreement to be reached," he said. "At the moment, however, the EuroLeague feels quite strong. So the NBA and NBA Europe will have to take some steps backward. We'll see where it ends up."