Mark Tatum alluded to<\/a> in a season-opening Zoom call this month.<\/p>\n\u201cThere will be an established top-tier league, which is the NBA Europe League,\u201d Tatum said. \u201cThere will be a second division. The winners of that second division will play into the top-tier league, and then there will be slots for every other club from every other domestic league to be able to play into a merit-based pathway.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether the NBA — which is still planning to launch in October of 2027 with or without the merger — will adjust its model to incorporate an entire EuroLeague. But, at its core, the difference between the two leagues is economics: perceived and reality. Tatum referenced reports during his call that not all EuroLeague teams are \u201cfinancially stable,\u201d and Bueno confirmed Thursday to EFE that that only 40% of his clubs are in a solid place. Industry sources believe it\u2019s even less than 40%, but, either way, Bueno said the goal remains to make them profitable within a 10-year period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a meeting to discuss this: allowing those who have money to keep spending but also balancing the system so it doesn\u2019t have an inflationary effect or jeopardize the goal of sustainability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Insiders say that\u2019s the crux of why the NBA wouldn\u2019t inherit the entire EuroLeague immediately — the sense being that NBA Europe can reinvigorate brands such as Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Fenerbah\u00e7e, Bayern Munich, ASVEL and Panathinaikos and perhaps add the other seven teams over time. <\/p>\n
The NBA\u2019s plan, for instance, is to invest $3B in NBA Europe at launch and cover early financial deficits to prevent teams from having to pour in extra capital during the infancy stages of the launch. Which is why Tatum said this month that NBA Europe can triple EuroLeague\u2019s projection of dispursing $3.8B to its participating clubs over a 10-year window.<\/p>\n
Asked about Tatum\u2019s tripling comment, Bueno said Tatum failed to account for the entry fee EuroLeague teams will have to pay to NBA Europe. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf [EuroLeague] franchises put in \u20ac500 million and earn \u20ac240 million over 10 years, they are still losing \u20ac260 million,\u201d Bueno said. \u201cIn our case, they don\u2019t lose money because they don\u2019t put anything in. If they generate \u20ac100 million or \u20ac200 million, that is what they generate.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s partly why, earlier this month in Como, EuroLeague\u2019s board rejected the NBA\u2019s offer to purchase the league and merge for a reported $581M.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there are other proposals from the NBA, our lines are open, but we will keep working on the EuroLeague model,\u201d Bueno said, referencing a EuroLeague plan to expand to 24 teams. \u201c… The clubs have a very clear position: They will want to be part of the decision-making. They have created a league that they own, and they want to continue deciding their future.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s also no denying the burgeoning interest in NBA Europe from several EuroLeague teams –particularly Real Madrid whose basketball director Juan Carlos Sanches has said: \u201cWe are eager for the NBA to come to Europe. The NBA is the premier league in the world and would give basketball on the continent a massive leap, economically, in media exposure, and in overall presence\u2026It is like being offered a Ferrari for the weekend. The NBA in Europe would be incredibly important for every club. Hopefully, the sooner, the better.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Merger negotiations between the NBA and EuroLeague crystallized Thursday when EuroLeague\u2019s CEO Chus Bueno told Spanish news agency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[402,355,99],"class_list":["post-899089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}