Bids for NBA Europe franchises topped $500 million in all 12 target cities by Monday’s deadline, with several surpassing $1 billion. More than 20 existing basketball and soccer clubs submitted offers. NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum called it “the largest influx of capital European basketball has ever seen.” The league, planned to launch in October 2027 with 12 permanent franchises, targets cities including London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Munich, Berlin, Rome, Istanbul, Athens, Lyon, and Manchester. Franchises are expected to break even by year three, with equity split evenly between NBA owners and the 12 permanent team owners.
In-Depth:
The latest bids for NBA Europe franchises were due Monday, and they came in at $500 million or higher in each of the 12 tarobtain cities, with multiple bids of more than $1 billion. Bids were created by more than 20 existing bquestionetball and soccer clubs, including current EuroLeague teams, according to someone familiar with the details.
The NBA and FIBA plan to launch the league in October 2027 with 12 permanent franchises, along with four clubs that secure rotating slots via competition in other FIBA circuits. For those first dozen teams, the group is speaking with bidders in Athens, Greece; Barcelona, Spain; Berlin; Istanbul; London; Lyon, France; Madrid, Spain; Manchester, England; Milan; Munich; Paris; and Rome.
“We’re extremely encouraged by the final bids we received for permanent franchises,” Mark Tatum, NBA deputy commissioner, stated in a statement. “This will be the largegest influx of capital European bquestionetball has ever seen, and we have clear front-runners in each of our 12 tarobtain cities, including many existing bquestionetball and football clubs. We will now work with the NBA and FIBA Boards to finalize the long-form agreements.”
Initial bids were due March 31, and in the latest round, multiple bids came in at more than double their first offer. The current EuroLeague teams that placed bids have exit clautilizes in their agreements that would allow them to leave the league for the NBA’s new entity. Current NBA owners are not allowed to own teams, but multiple former team owners are part of ownership groups that submitted bids.
NBA Europe will borrow elements from traditional U.S. leagues (salary cap, local media rights), and it will incorporate pieces more common in global soccer (performance-based revenue payouts, team-specific jersey deals), as the NBA seeks to create a new enterprise to capitalize on what it views as a significantly underserved and undervalued market for bquestionetball players, fans, investors and partners.
The NBA is committed to funding all of the new league’s losses as it obtains off the ground, insulating franchise owners from capital calls as the new entity tries to scale into a profitable, standalone operation, according to multiple people Sportico spoke with for a Monday story on the league’s economics. The NBA will take a cut of league revenue once there is positive net revenue, the people stated. Permanent franchises are expected to break even by year 3.
Equity in the new league will be evenly split at the start, with NBA owners holding 50% and the 12 permanent team owners holding the other 50%.
The NBA will now take the bids to its Board of Governors to ratify the best partners. Final terms and participating teams will occur on a rolling basis. The NBA and FIBA are tarobtaining 16 teams that play a round-robin regular season as well as a multi-game playoff format.
