Former NBAer Tony Parker, who owns EuroLeague club ASVEL, said he’s in discussions to enter his franchise in the prospective NBA Europe, a league he now believes is a foregone conclusion.
“At the end of the day, we are talking, and we are trying to go in the right direction,” Parker told China Daily during a promotional visit to Chengdu. “… NBA Europe league for me is just a matter of time. They are coming, and it’s going to happen.”
Parker’s comments reinforce what sources have been saying — that an NBA Europe is imminent and likely to launch in two years. Commissioner Adam Silver and Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum visited London and France over the summer — speaking with potential stakeholders and media entities — and continue to engage with The Raine Group and JP Morgan to set the parameters of franchise fees.
Sources have told SBJ that the NBA expects those fees to be somewhere between $500M and $1B and that Silver and Tatum will present their latest data to the league’s Board of Governors this week. The Governors are not expected to officially greenlight the league at the meeting, but there appears to be universal interest going forward, perhaps even more so than proceeding with domestic expansion.
If the actual NBA expands to cities such as Seattle and Las Vegas, it will mean dividing media rights money more ways. But if the NBA expands peripherally through the new European league, the 30 teams would keep their media rights money in tact and also gain significant and simultaneous revenue overseas.
The early template for NBA Europe — in collaboration with FIBA — is a league of between 14 and 16 teams, four of which would have to qualify annually on merit, perhaps through either a mini-tournament or performance in international play. Otherwise, the league will be a mix of existing teams (such as Spain’s Real Madrid or Turkey’s Galatasaray), existing soccer brands launching basketball teams for the first time (perhaps a Manchester City) or new clubs built from scratch.
Parker’s team, ASVEL, is based in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon, France. It would likely be joined by another NBA Europe franchise in Paris. London, Berlin and Munich are other cities almost certain to be part of the league’s landscape.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Parker said of the venture. “If the EuroLeague, the NBA and FIBA can find a way to work together to build a strong league, that will be amazing for European basketball. … There is a lot of room for improvement [for the commercial side of basketball overseas]. … For me, as an owner of a French club, having an agreement between the three [NBA, FIBA and EuroLeague] is the key to the success of European basketball.”
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