NBA Europe will distribute 'hundreds of millions' to franchises for new competition

[p]The NBA project, which is due to be launched in 2027 in partnership with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), has come under intense scrutiny with respect to its financial viability.[/p][p]Franchises would need to stump up between "500 million and one billion" dollars to take part, and in return they would become "partners" in the NBA Europe project, said Aivazoglou, the NBA's managing director for Europe and the Middle East.[/p][p]Almost all top-level European basketball sides are losing money, although the NBA model envisages franchises - many newly created ones - set up in major cities such as London, Paris, Berlin and Madrid.[/p][p]These are cities where the sporting environment, largely dominated by football, is already saturated.[/p][p]NBA commissioner Adam Silver said two weeks ago that they had received "record interest" from potential franchises, whose bids to join the new league are due at the end of the month.[/p][p]As well as FIBA, the NBA has been in discussions with EuroLeague Basketball, which organises the continent's top basketball competition -- the equivalent of football's Champions League -- which was first held in 1958.[/p][p]The NBA is pitching its proposed new league as a huge money-spinner for potential investors -- despite their mammoth initial outlay.[/p][p]"[b]The partner becomes a shareholder. There is asset value there[/b]," said Aivazoglou.[/p][p]"[b]This is the NBA's league in Europe and this will be an asset that is worth in the 10s of billions of dollars[/b].[/p][p]"[b]So you're buying into that, obviously buying into a share of the NBA brand, which as we know will be a significant accelerator of how we create value in the ecosystem[/b]."[/p][p]He said that the franchises would benefit from the NBA's "digital direct consumer technology, our broadcast operations, our commercial capabilities".[/p][p]The plan is to create a competition with 12 permanent franchises, with four more teams needing to qualify to take part.[/p][p]All of those teams would benefit from "very significant central distributions from the league - we're talking on aggregate in the hundreds of millions per year", said Aivazoglou.[/p][p]Divided among 16 teams, that translates as 10s of millions each.[/p][p]An inside source at Qatar Sports Investment, the owners of the Paris Saint-Germain football team, who have been approached by the NBA over creating a franchise, told AFP in January that the initial investment required to join was exorbitant and prohibitive.[/p][p]The NBA has pledged, though, to invest three billion dollars into the project to help cover initial losses.[/p][p]"[b]We're building a league for the next 100 years[/b]," insisted Aivazoglou.[/p][p]Once the bidding process ends on June 29th, the NBA "will move forward with next steps that could include announcements from there".[/p]