NBA plans to launch European league ‘in the next two years’

The NBA plans to finalize franchise fees in the next few months with a goal of launching NBA Europe “in the next two years,” the league’s deputy commissioner and COO Mark Tatum said Tuesday.

Speaking with international media, Tatum said, “Yes, our goal is to launch in the next two years. Obviously, that’s pending NBA and FIBA Board approval.”

According to the Sports Business Journal, the NBA is eyeing franchise fees in the range of $500 million to $1 billion and has hired JP Morgan and The Raine Group to “refine” the business plan.

“In the near, immediate future we’re going to start engaging in a meaningful way with potential investors in the league,” Tatum said Tuesday, per TalkSport.com. “We’re sort of going to the next step. And I think over the next, call it eight weeks or so, we’ll have a really good sense of where we are in terms of the level of interest.”

The SBJ reported that while it’s considered unlikely, the NBA could walk away from the project if it does not receive the market value it believes is warranted. In the meantime, the business template includes determining potential team locations.

“We think that this league will include a combination of existing clubs, potential new clubs that don’t exist today, and maybe there’s some football clubs who don’t have a basketball team but who want to invest in a basketball team,” Tatum said.

“In phase one, our initial plan is to go 10 to 12 cities. Primarily (the) UK, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, maybe Turkey, maybe Greece for franchises.”

Tatum said the NBA would run the “top-tier” league.

“Our plan would be for FIBA’s Basketball Champions League to be the second-tier division,” he said. “And then at the launch of this league, there will be four open spots that teams across the continent would qualify for on an annual basis through a transparent merit-based process, either by winning their respective domestic leagues and then playing into the Basketball Champions League, or you can create one big play-in tournament of the domestic champions.

“Down the road, you could see things like having the winners or the top-two finishers in the European League come enter into the NBA Cup and get injected to the NBA Cup.

“And then really down the road, once supersonic travel happens, you could see a division of the NBA in Europe.”

London will host its 10th regular-season NBA game when the Memphis Grizzlies play the Orlando Magic on Jan. 18, 2026. There are plans for the league to play games in Manchester, England, and Paris in 2027, and in Berlin and Paris in 2028.

“There are no top-tier teams in the UK,” Tatum said, per TalkSport.com. “We think that there has to be, because we know that the demand --that the number of fans in the UK, that the size of the market -- that we have to service those fans.”

Source: Reuters
--Agencies