NBA Europe: Format revealed as uncertainty shrouds EuroLeague collaboration talks
The NBA wants its European basketball competition to replicate the dynamic between football’s Champions League and Europa League. Much of the rest of the detail surrounding a property slated for launch next year remains under wraps.
A cloud may have fallen over talks between the NBA and EuroLeague but there is at least some welcome clarity on what a new European franchise competition operated by the US basketball behemoth will actually look like.
The vision for NBA Europe is a two-tier format based on football’s Champions League and Europa League model, the NBA’s managing director for Europe and the Middle East, George Aivazoglou, explained this week.
The 16-team top tier of a competition still slated for launch in 12 months’ time will be largely composed of new franchises in cities including London and Manchester alongside major clubs from the current European scene.
Four spaces will be open to qualification via a standalone tournament and performance in the second tier, which will be majority open based on domestic performance. The intended result is a united pyramid based on the European sports model.
“Our vision is to create a two-tier ecosystem, pan-European at the top,” Aivazoglou told the Sportico Invest London conference.
“NBA Europe is a semi-open league, and then the second competition, the BCL [Basketball Champions League], will be fully open, so 75 per cent of the teams will come in a merit-based way.
“In the last few months we’ve been very close in discussions with EuroLeague to figure out ways to bring them into our ecosystem. A lot of work is happening there, but the NBA’s intent is to work with the existing players who are in Europe.”
NBA insists on branding and eyes US-style governance
The NBA is determined to lure the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona from EuroLeague and it would be far less messy – and more commercially viable – to do a deal with the incumbent competition.
Those talks have been long-running and appeared to hit another bump this week when a meeting of EuroLeague chiefs in Italy is believed to have resulted in the rejection of the NBA’s latest proposal for a collaboration.
The NBA says it favours cooperation but intends to launch in autumn 2027 regardless of the outcome of the discussions. EuroLeague has been open to collaboration but is advancing its own expansion plans in parallel.
Reports this week reflected concerns that NBA Europe could be delayed until 2028, although Aivazoglou insinsted today that they were “moving ahead with our plans for a launch in the next year”.
With the clock ticking on the proposed start date and some prospective investors in new franchises, which the NBA believes will fetch $1bn in some markets, impatient for some clarity, decision time would appear to be approaching.
Neither the NBA nor EuroLeague has been prepared to comment on whether further talks will take place, although the feeling among insiders is that this isn’t the end of the road for an effective takeover by the NBA. Yet.
It is understood that the NBA is willing to discuss tweaks to the model and the BCL name – currently in use by its partner Fiba, the world governing body, for its pan-continental competition – but won’t budge on it being branded an NBA competition.
The NBA is also keen to replicate the governance structure in the US, defined by salary cap rules and collective bargaining agreements, as far as European laws allow.
NBA Europe will be global like Champions League
“The good news about it being the NBA is we know what the NBA looks like,” Josh Empson, a partner at private equity firm Sixth Street said this week.
“Does the NBA in Europe look exactly like the NBA in the US? No. Does it look something more like the way the Champions League looks like in football, if that were a persistent year-round league where you’re playing across markets and across territories?
“Markets in Europe are obviously more different than states or cities are in the US and I think that’s one thing that’s exciting about this – we get that same energy of national competition that we see in the Champions League in football. I think that’s what a successful NBA Europe looks like, crossing those boundaries.”
Aivazoglou added: “For me, it’s two dimensions, going along the lines of Josh’s thinking, this will be something that will feel very natively European, very authentic. It will respect the traditions of the game. The game is being played and enjoyed in a very different way here than in the US.
“We want to keep it traditional and authentic, and keep the soul as it is, but bring in entertainment elements that allow different segments, different audiences to come in, and that is one of the big opportunities for European basketball.
“The second component, this will be global if it’s successful, which I think it will be. It will be a global brand and platform. It will transcend Europe. It will feel original in the sense of the European psyche, but it will transcend it in the same way that the NBA transcends the US.”