NBA Owners to Review Proposed European League

NBA owners are set to review this week on a plan to launch a pro basketball league in Europe, one that would help expand the sport’s presence across the continent and give the NBA a chance to share more directly in the economics of that growth.

League owners are considering a new league with eight to 10 franchises, according to someone directly familiar with the plans. It’s a “semi-open” proposal, the person said, meaning there would be up to four spots for the best teams in the EuroLeague—the continent’s top circuit with teams like Real Madrid in Spain and Greece’s Olympiacos—to compete in the NBA’s European league the following year. The franchises in places like London or Paris could sell for at least $500 million, according to the proposal.

The league would sell the permanent franchise slots to outside investors, with the NBA holding 50% of the equity and franchise owners holding the other 50%, said the person, who was granted anonymity because the details are private. That’s a setup identical to the equity structure of the WNBA up until the league raised outside capital in 2022.

As it stands, NBA officials would prefer to sell those franchises to people outside of the league, the person said, meaning sovereign wealth funds, private capital, wealthy individuals or existing European basketball clubs.

“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,” a league spokesman said in a statement.

NBA owners could vote on the proposal at any time, though no formal vote is scheduled during the meetings this week in New York, an NBA spokesman said. A rep for the Raine Group, which is advising the league on the matter, declined to comment.

The proposal comes after more than a year of discussions about how the NBA might better optimize its business in Europe. The league has generated a few hundred million dollars annually from Europe in recent years, but interest on the continent is growing, as is the number of talented players. The NBA believes the basketball system in Europe and the Middle East could be worth as much as $3 billion in annual revenue, Sportico reported last year.

The NBA considered deeper partnerships with the EuroLeague and/or the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), including the possibility to utilizing the NBA’s marketing and commercial operations to assist the EuroLeague in selling sponsorships, Sportico previously reported. It also considered a more international competition beyond just Europe. Discussions about a new standalone league happened simultaneously.

Overseas opportunities have been a growing priority for the NBA over the last four decades, ever since the league did its first deal in China in the last 1980s. Despite the 2019 Hong Kong controversy, the league’s China endeavors have grown into a multibillion-dollar business. In 2021, the league launched the Basketball Africa League (BAL), operated in partnership by the NBA and FIBA. NBA Africa brought in strategic investors including a consortium led by Tunde Folawiyo, chairman of Yinka Folawiyo Group  and Helios Fairfax Partners, led by co-CEO Tope Lawani, for the NBA’s first standalone league outside of North America.

The NBA has played 40 regular-season games outside the U.S. and Canada, dating back to the 1990s, and dozens more preseason contests. It didn’t play regular season games in Europe until 2011, when it played in London. The league has held five regular-season games in France in the last few years.

There were 125 foreign-born players on NBA rosters at the start of this season, the highest total in league history. That includes 62 from Europe, including stars Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and Victor Wembanyama. The past six NBA MVPs were non-American; there were just four in league history prior to that.

New leagues are popping up seemingly weekly across virtually every sport, basketball included. This year was the first season of Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 women’s circuit in Florida that featured some of the WNBA’s biggest names. Bloombergreported in January that Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ business partner, was advising a group looking to raise $5 billion for an international basketball league to “rival the NBA.”

(This story has been updated in the headline and first paragraph with additional details of the NBA’s plans, as well as in the fifth paragraph with a statement from the league.)