By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
With the partnership between the NBA and FIBA looking to launch a new top-tier league in Europe in 2027, widely labeled as NBA Europe, Mark Tatum went into some details regarding the starting franchises during an interview with Sportico.
“If you’re a fan, it’s hard to follow professional basketball in Europe. It’s easy to follow the NBA, but it’s hard to follow European basketball,” said the deputy commissioner of the NBA.
“Top tier at EuroLeague is missing some of the biggest commercial markets in Europe,” he continued. “There’s no top-tier team in the UK at all, and the UK is the biggest market in Europe. There’s no top-tier basketball team there: in London, in Manchester. There’s no permanent top-tier team in the top league, there in Paris, in Berlin, in Rome. So, they’re missing the biggest commercial markets, which is why they are not able to commercialize basketball.”
From sharing his view on the current status across European basketball, the 56-year-old executive also named specific markets for two permanent franchises each at the start of the new European League, confirming earlier reports on the initial participants.
“Our idea is to create this league, call it 12 to 16 teams, with the biggest countries having permanent franchises. Call it the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, or France. Two teams in each one of those markets that we know with certainty will have franchises there, and then we’ll open it up to the rest of the ecosystem,” Tatum explained.
A recent meeting in London gathered several current EuroLeague participants, presenting financial projections and tentative plans for a new European League, as detailed by Eurohoops.