{"id":293425,"date":"2025-11-18T21:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/293425\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:24:08","slug":"george-aivazoglou-relays-nba-europe-format-explains-plans-for-big-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/293425\/","title":{"rendered":"George Aivazoglou relays NBA Europe format, explains plans for big cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Johnny Askounis\/ info@eurohoops.net<\/a><\/p>\n

NBA\u2019s managing director of NBA Europe and Middle East, George Aivazoglou, revisited the project on creating a new top-tier league in Europe, widely labeled as NBA Europe.<\/p>\n

After attending the first-ever NFL game played in Spain, specifically at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Sunday, he talked to AS<\/a> about his experience and possible links to the new European league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait for the day we play an NBA game there. The newly renovated stadium is incredible, and the fans were so involved,\u201d he said of the stadium located in the Spanish capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything is possible,\u201d he added on possibly hosting an NBA game at Bernabeu, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of interest. A couple of years ago, when we brought the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> to Madrid, the deputy commissioner, Mark Tatum, and I visited Bernabeu, which was still under construction. The officials told us\u2014and they\u2019ve reiterated it to me ever since\u2014that the intention is to host all kinds of sporting events. We\u2019ll have to work out the details, how to do it, but it would be incredible to bring one or two NBA teams here and play a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shifting to the partnership between the NBA and FIBA, Aivazoglou shared his thoughts on the progress of recent months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been tremendous momentum since we made the joint announcement. Our commissioner, Adam Silver, and FIBA \u200b\u200bSecretary General, Andreas Zagklis, have been working tirelessly since March. We are in an advanced stage of this exploratory phase. We hired two advisory banks in the summer, JP Morgan and Raine, and are having productive discussions with many stakeholders: investors, teams, and other parties involved. We are at a very advanced stage of the project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t talk about the ongoing discussions,\u201d he replied to a question about any possible agreements with teams. \u201cWe\u2019re working towards launching the competition in October 2027, less than two years away. We want to start with 16 teams, twelve of which will be permanent franchises and the other four will have to qualify. There are many clubs interested in participating in the project: big basketball clubs and football clubs that don\u2019t have a basketball section but want one because the NBA is coming to Europe. We\u2019re in talks with all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major European cities<\/p>\n

NBA Europe is expected to feature teams in big cities, many of which lack a strong connection to European basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuropean basketball isn\u2019t realizing the value it should. It\u2019s the second most popular sport, as you know, with 270 million fans on the continent. It\u2019s growing faster than football. But then you look at the combined value of the leagues, both continental and domestic, and their contribution doesn\u2019t exceed 0.5% of the sports industry in Europe. The reasons are varied, and teams are losing money, and there are reasons for that, too. One of them is the lack of a presence in some major European cities with millions of inhabitants and a significant basketball fanbase. We see this when we bring NBA games to these places: tickets sell out quickly, and there\u2019s a lot of interest, but right now, they don\u2019t have a team in the top league,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve identified some of these cities as key areas for the new project. However, the way we bring these teams to life is different, and that matters. The NBA is a global brand, and we want to partner with as many global sports brands as possible. Many of the conversations are with existing teams, and as I said, some are basketball teams and others are football clubs that want to create a basketball section. I think that strikes a good balance between the two,\u201d he furthered.<\/p>\n

Aivazoglou was also asked about Real Madrid<\/a> and FC Barcelona, and if their projected participation is realistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are two of the biggest teams in the world, if not the two biggest, then certainly the best. And the NBA is a huge global brand, so what we want is to partner with some of the biggest, best brands in the world. Beyond that, I can\u2019t say that anything is completely ruled out; all plans are possible. But we are very clear about our intention to launch this project with some of the best brands in Europe and the world,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

Path to NBA Europe<\/p>\n

The next question was about the previously revealed 12+4 plan for participating teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have in mind now, we believe, is the best plan to start with, but obviously it\u2019s a process, and we\u2019re open to options and listening to our future partners. There\u2019s room for other opinions to come in and influence the plan, although we have a good foundation to begin with. The most interesting thing is that we can expand on this idea of \u200b\u200bstarting with 16 teams; things could be different in three or four years,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

A new top-tier European league establishing direct connections to the NBA via a spot in the annual NBA Cup was also discussed by Aivazoglou.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese potential collaborations are among the most exciting ideas being considered for the future. Many things can be done that would be great for the fans. I can imagine a scenario, just a few years after the new competition begins, where a tournament is created featuring teams from both the current NBA and the new league. Even Adam Silver and Mark Tatum have discussed it. Many ways of approaching this integration are being explored,\u201d he mentioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said, everything is on the table, but it needs to be analyzed from a practical standpoint: the density of the calendar, the distances, the travel,\u201d he replied to a question about possibly shaping a new division in the NBA with European teams. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s very difficult to propose something like that. In the future? In, say, 15 years, who knows? At some point, there might be supersonic travel options that don\u2019t exist now. But the vision, as commissioner Stern also expressed, is to take steps toward broader collaboration, with more integration between competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Euroleague Basketball<\/p>\n

Naturally, ongoing talks with stakeholders involve Euroleague Basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain open to discussion. We\u2019ve met several times in the last six months, most recently in Geneva about a month ago. And we would gladly accept an invitation from FIBA \u200b\u200bto continue these conversations. What\u2019s clear is that we believe the ideas I\u2019ve been putting forward are the best for the future of European basketball, and we also recognize the problems that have hindered its development. Therefore, we believe we need to be aligned on both the possibilities that arise and the problems that have arisen. This should be a very important part of any future discussions,\u201d said Aivazoglou, updating the relationship with Europe\u2019s current premier club competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be a shared belief that the concept we\u2019re discussing is the best for the development of basketball in Europe, especially since it\u2019s been created in collaboration with national federations and leagues. This makes it far more valuable for the base of the pyramid\u2014those leagues where young talent is being developed and fan interest is being cultivated. This, along with the inclusion of strategic cities currently excluded, can elevate the entire ecosystem,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Aivazoglou also detailed the plan for generating revenue in European basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing is to rekindle the passion at the base of that pyramid I\u2019m talking about. If you look at the most important sport, the most successful one in Europe, which is football, it\u2019s based on a strong structure of national leagues. Nobody says \u2018I don\u2019t care about La Liga\u2019 in Spain or the Premier League in England, and \u2018we only care about the Champions League\u2019. Both realities coexist harmoniously, with breaks when necessary, as happens with national team matches. An effort is made to solidify the system that isn\u2019t made in basketball. We have to rethink that, reset it. And then there\u2019s the audience, the fans,\u201d he mentioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the best basketball competition in the world; it attracts the most basketball fans, but also a different kind of fan. Those interested in the great stories of the best players, in how their brand blends with the world of fashion, for example, with sneakers, music\u2026 This generates a much broader, more diverse audience, something that is very important from a commercial point of view, for advertisers, marketing experts, media platforms\u2026 We have to learn from this and diversify, reaching major countries that are not currently represented,\u201d he added on what the NBA can bring to the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, only slightly more than 10% of European teams can play in the EuroLeague, meaning that over 80% of fans have no chance of seeing their team in the premier competition. We need to find ways to attract those fans. This is something the NBA manages to do, and it shows in its revenue, in those television deals worth almost $80 billion. It\u2019s a global brand, and we want the league we\u2019re launching to also have a global audience. There are major cities with local fans, but also fans worldwide, because their brands are international and because they have citizens all over the globe. That\u2019s how we approach our media strategy and content creation,\u201d he said, \u201cTo be a league for Europe, but also for the world, which will help teams become profitable. They\u2019re currently losing money; they\u2019ve been doing so for decades. There\u2019s a lot we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the latest News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Johnny Askounis\/ info@eurohoops.net NBA\u2019s managing director of NBA Europe and Middle East, George Aivazoglou, revisited the project…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-293425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}