Chus Bueno has shown Euroleague is more open to working on the NBA Europe project. Yet interest from PSG and the Saudi PIF has added a new layer of complexity. Emmet Ryan on how things have somehow become more confusing just as clarity stood a chance.
I promise this is a basketball site that covers the basketball parts of basketball but this is a story that just won’t end. Chus Bueno has been lights out in the diplomacy department since taking over as CEO of Euroleague.
That looked to be paving a way for a solution that kept all the stakeholders on the administrative side of European basketball happy. Then the Athletic dropped a whopper of a report that, despite being about increased interest in NBA Europe, has only complicated matters. Let’s get into it.
Common sense was winning
Diplomacy involves saying the right things without committing to anything you might regret later. Chus Bueno has been absolutely brilliant in that balancing act in his short-time as chief executive of Euroleague.
Paulius Motiejunas, his predecessor, had taken what seemed like a necessary aggressive stance with FIBA and the NBA. The change in leadership gave Bueno a clean slate to work with and he’s said all the right but safe things about NBA Europe since taking over.
He told Marca at the start of the month that collaboration suits everyone, with gushing praise for Adam Silver, Mark Tatum, and George Aivazoglou. He then reiterated his push for collaboration while speaking with NOVA TV in Greece a few days later. A path that involved partnership was closer than ever.
New players enter the mix
The Athletic published an extensive report that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) wants to buy an NBA Europe franchise and establish it in London. The same report stated that Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), the owners of PSG, now want to press ahead having been on the fence since first being linked with the project. Furthermore, RedBird Capitale, which owns AC Milan, wants to own a franchise in that city.
That the piece was by Joe Vardon is quite telling. Vardon has been closer than any journalist so far in terms of getting the accurate view from the NBA side of the project. That gives added weight to the report as his sources are likely of a rather high calibre.
Obviously the more sources of investment for the project, the better it is on paper. Still, there will only be so many seats at the table and any new sides increase the complications around set-up.
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The direct clashes
The three proposed NBA Europe cities in Vardon’s report all have professional sides already. Granted, their backing and history vary substantially. For RedBird’s proposed move in Milan, it’s hard to see any project that works as anything but a money pit without coming to a deal with the Armani family, owners of Euroleague mainstays Olimpia Milano. The feasibility of that is hard to tell given Giorgio Armani died in September and the dispersal and management of an estate of that scale is no easy task.
Then there’s Paris when Paris Basketball already exists. Here, a deal between QSI and Paris Basketball’s existing ownership would make a heap of sense for both sides. Just because something is sensible, it doesn’t mean it will happen. The Arnault family’s investment in sports in recent years could also complicate matters.
Lastly, London is home to the London Lions who are quite keen on NBA Europe. They are owned by Tesonet, which also co-owns Zalgiris Kaunas. The Saudi PIF could possibly breeze by them but a partnership here is also plausible.
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So it can all be managed?
Well, nothing is impossible. Still, there are now far more moving pieces involved in the NBA Europe project. That interview by Bueno with Marca spoke about moving Euroleague to a franchise based model, while also allowing for some method of qualification. The idea would be to raise the core value of each individual franchise within Euroleague.
Bueno is clearly working with a mind to keep more than the existing 13 A licence teams (albeit actively 12 given CSKA Moscow’s continued absence) happy. The value of the Belgrade clubs to the overall Euroleague product, and indeed basketball as a whole in Europe, is far more than the direct revenue generated by Crvena Zvezda and Partizan.
That leaves another 5 clubs who almost all have clear value upside. There’s the aforementioned Paris Basketball, Valencia Basket (with a city on the up economically), Virtus Bologna (securing a second Italian market), and Dubai BC (another potentially cash-rich side given the UAE’s interest). Only AS Monaco, which is made of problems, and Hapoel Tel Aviv (a second team in a market adequately served by one from a business perspective) aren’t high drivers.
So what happens?
We’re going with the best case scenario for the people trying to make NBA Europe work here. That means assuming agreements can be done in London, Milan, and Paris which would mean no new teams are created. It would also mean waving goodbye to Hapoel Tel Aviv and AS Monaco purely in an effort to concentrate revenue.
That still leaves 18 teams, 19 if you include CSKA Moscow, from the existing Euroleague plus added teams from London and Berlin. More than likely, Manchester and Rome are on the short-term agenda. The speed at which this project gets to 22 or 24 teams before a ball has been tipped is unmanageably concerning. Remember, that’s the best case scenario for the stakeholders.
For the fans, well I’m with Sarunas Jasikevicius on this. The most important thing is the fans. They have been well at the back of priorities in all of this. It’s sadly not surprising but it’s a reality that can’t be ignored. No doubt, sooner rather than later, we’ll be revisiting this topic.
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