By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Chus Bueno is in a hurry. Despite being new on the job, he knows that a lot of things must evolve in European basketball, and having the position of the EuroLeague CEO means that he can be a key agent in this progress.
After all, he knows the landscape pretty well; he has the full backing of the EuroLeague clubs’ shareholders, and now it’s time to act.
In an interview that ended up being a pretty open conversation, and the continuation of the meeting held in Athens, Eurohoops had the chance to have a glimpse of a very exciting roadmap for the future.
After almost one hour, it was evident that the interview had to be divided into two parts, with the second one centred around the relationship with the NBA and FIBA.
In the first one, Chus Bueno talks about the progress already made in his days as CEO with Fenerbahce and ASVEL signing their new 10-year deals with the EuroLeague, while Real Madrid is also expected to do the same next week, as AS has already reported.
On top of that, the evolution of the clubs into franchises is explained, and the number of 70 teams which are interested in being part of the EuroLeague ecosystem is revealed, together with the details about five teams which are in the running for the two last open spots of the EuroLeague. Paris, Monaco, Besiktas and Hapoel Jerusalem are being confirmed as candidates, while PAOK is also mentioned.
Plus, in the expanded EuroCup, the goal is to have open spots for qualification via the domestic leagues. At the same time, the EuroLeague CEO also talked about the recent officiating and ticketing issues of the recent Final Four in Athens. The next Final Four is still expected to be held in Abu Dhabi, and the new EuroLeague SuperCup, which may be revealed sooner rather than later, will mark from now on the start of each season.
Let’s start with a little bit more personal question. After four months as a CEO, how do you feel in this position, and what have you accomplished or want to accomplish in the near future?
“It’s been a little bit more than three months, not even four. And I’m super excited to be here. I’m very happy. I mean, it’s an amazing organisation. It’s an amazing brand. I thought it was good, but it is much better than I was expecting. If you take a look at what we have done, we have to be very, very happy, not only because of the things that we have achieved in a very short time, but also how the market, how the clubs, how everyone is buying into our vision and our project, and are jumping in. I mean, to name a few, we were working on the licenses for the clubs to be with us. The two teams, ASVEL and Fenerbahce, have signed; hopefully, Real Madrid will be signing next week. That’s why we are hearing from them. We created this new model, this new chapter of franchise expansion.”
“We did a lot of conversation with investors. They want to invest in our arenas. They want to give us one billion to support us on this project. We have changed the EuroCup. We’re creating opportunities for more teams, long-term. We will talk about it later. We have almost 70 clubs that want to join this organisation. At a critical moment when I came in, things were a bit lost in terms of the vision or the project. And now we have more than 70 clubs that are committed or have expressed interest in writing. They have said that they want to be part of this organisation, whether they want to buy a team, or they want to create a franchise in the EuroLeague, or they want to be part of the EuroCup. And then on the business side, we changed all the revenue distribution, we changed all the digital direct-to-consumer strategy, and we have created a new asset that is the Super Cup. And this is just three months. So I am super happy. I have been busy, I’m not going to lie. But for me, what I feel most proud of is that with the teams, with the executive committee, the people in the EuroLeague, we have created one plan that now all our owners, all our teams are embracing. And they are stronger together. They see that they are united within this plan. And to have everyone in the same room with the same idea, when, as you know, in the past, they were very divided. Now we are getting everything done unanimously. For too much time, it was rare for clubs to agree. I feel very proud of what we have achieved”.
It’s obvious that the whole atmosphere around the EuroLeague is now changed, and there is a report in AS about Real Madrid being ready to sign the ten-year license. How do you interpret this change in the league? And I don’t want to talk for you to talk about yourself, but the obvious, let’s say, difference is you…
“Well, I would say it is the plan and the vision. People can buy into a person, but I think that what they are buying into is the plan. The alignment is around one idea, one project, one plan that we have presented altogether. Yes, I’m leading this plan, but I have the whole team with me; you cannot do this alone. So the team has to help, the league executives have to help, and the clubs have to help, too. Everyone has to align with this idea. And I think that this is the main reason why people are just feeling like, okay, now we feel comfortable with what we have on the table, let’s do it”.
And what about Real Madrid?
“They have not signed yet, but I keep saying, as I said from the beginning, that they will stay with us. I was optimistic from day one because I just think that it is the best option for them. As well as Fenerbahce and ASVEL did, hopefully Real Madrid will do it too. We have to respect that they are in the midst of elections, with voting happening this weekend. Hopefully, at the beginning of next week, we can re-engage in the conversation and try to land this as soon as possible, because we need to move on with the next season. We need to present an update on the competition to the board on June 9, and it would be great if Madrid is already on board”.
Can you explain in very simple terms what the difference will be between having shareholders and the franchises, because this is something that still is a little bit unclear, and a lot of people, casual fans, don’t really understand what this transformation means and why it’s so important.
“So, basically, there are a few things for me. One, becoming a franchise is going to be a signal to the market. We’re here to stay forever. And that brings a lot of investment interest as there is a long-term thinking. If you have a 10-year license and then it disappears, every year your value is less. When your time is up, your value is zero, and you start all over again. We changed this. Now, teams are going to be here forever, so we can invest. Make plans for an arena because they will be there in 25 years, and they can ask for a long 25-year loan. I can have an investor who can get equity in my company because they know that they can have returns on investment and EBITDA numbers for several years. There are so many reasons why it’s important. If you’re a franchise and you want to go and look for third-party investments or sell the club, your value is much, much higher. So I’ll reverse the question: What is the downside of having franchises? It’s easier when you see it this way. There are a lot of benefits and no downsides. So that’s why the people embrace it. And now they’re asking me to do it as soon as possible so they can move to the next level”.
The new EuroCup and Besiktas’ chances for the EuroLeague
What’s your plan for the EuroCup? Because the expansion is coming, and suddenly the EuroCup is a hot commodity, which was also a big debate in the past: What was the purpose of the EuroCup…
“We have to say that we are overwhelmed by the interest in the EuroCup. It came from the clubs, after meeting some European clubs and understanding how good the competition is for them, how they can grow having a middle-level, a second-tier competition, and a project that is steadier, for two, three, four, five years. It helps them to get the concession of an arena, get the sponsors for three years, because now they’re gonna play three years in the EuroCup. Right now, every year, I have to figure things out, depending on where I am. If I’m not playing in continental competitions, I’m gonna get 60% of my sponsorship contract, and then the player doesn’t want to come, because the player is like, “You’re there next year?” and so on. After talking to them, we understood that there are a lot of good projects that just need help, so we were debating internally how we can develop and protect good projects. One way to do it is to have medium-term licenses, three to five years. So they have medium-term certainty to go back to the market and extract more value.”
” And then suddenly we have 41 clubs. They were like, ” Hey, we’re interested in this project and the way you see this, how you want to build on time. We heard about the digital platform that you’re creating for direct-to-consumer that we can use as a club”, and suddenly we started building a better proposition and a better license model, and we have 41 clubs. Then we said, if we are expanding, we should be sure those people are coming, so let’s ask for a letter of commitment. And we have the same number of letters of commitment. So people are focused on it, the board will need to approve it at the end, but we’re moving in the right direction. We are protecting the spots for qualification from Domestic Leagues that we already announced, and the rest will be completed with teams with these mid-term licenses, and others with one-year wild cards. We had over 40 teams interested and signing a letter of commitment, which led us to think about expanding. Not to 40, but to 32 for now.. And we are very, very, very happy because at the end you do this for the clubs, for the clubs, and clubs are happy doing this. So we will keep growing and exploring how we can improve the EuroCup. For now, yes, we are aiming to have 32 teams, 20 with a middle long-term license, which we have already, and we move from there”.
Speaking about the EuroCup, there is also an elephant in the room, at least in Turkey. What are the realistic chances of Besiktas playing next year in the Euroleague and not in the EuroCup?
“Well, we have to decide on the board on the 9th of June what we want to do. We have five teams interested in playing the EuroLeague (ed. note: and two open spots), they have different angles, they are different teams, and we want to understand from the clubs, if we are keeping the 20 teams, which could be the best candidates. We also know that Paris does not have a license. If Paris gets to be the 19th, who will be the other team to get the 20th spot? If Besiktas can’t get it, they have already signed the EuroCup license. So, they know that they’re going to have a very good project in the EuroCup, and maybe they can win it and make it to the EuroLeague. They have the baseline, and that baseline is already very high with the EuroCup. It’s a club that has a big ambition, they are improving, and they have a very good fan base. Let’s see what happens. The board needs to decide”.
Just to clarify, you said that you have five teams that have applied for the Euroleague, and there are two open spots. So I guess that the other three teams that we didn’t mention are Monaco, Hapoel Jerusalem, and PAOK?
“Yes, and there are some more that still need to put an offer in writing. If you ask them, everyone wants to play in the EuroLeague. This is one thing, and it’s another thing to put an offer in writing and say, “OK, this is what I want and what I offer”, because I need to explain to the board why. So we have Monaco, Paris, Besiktas, we have Jerusalem, and there’s also a fifth one. It’s not only PAOK, because PAOK said it. Other teams want the same, but I don’t want to disclose more at this point, as they did not say it publicly”.
Let’s go to what you said about the domestic leagues in the EuroCup. You have already had meetings with the ABA League and with the Greek League. Do you intend to have a specific path of qualification via the domestic leagues for the EuroCup?
“The answer is yes. I spoke not only with the Greek and the ABA leagues, but I also spoke with the ACB, with the French league, and with the Italian league. I spoke with ULEB, and we told them all that we want their champions to have access via the domestic competitions. And if the champion is already in the EuroCup or the EuroLeague, or wants to play somewhere else, then this spot becomes a wildcard for us. We will try our best to allocate that to a team from the same domestic league, but it will not be an obligation. But we will try, because we want to have all the leagues more involved. This is our commitment, and we want to go further than that. We want to really have a good partnership with the domestic leagues, all of them, not only the bigger ones. We’re talking about what we can build together, not only in terms of participation, but also about what we can do more together in the digital space. As I told you, we are building a very strong and compelling digital direct-to-consumer platform. Maybe they want to join and benefit from the technology that we’re building. We are also talking about the arena fund. We are creating this vehicle to renovate arenas. If they want to use it, we’re happy to explore it. So at the end, we want to help the ecosystem. And if we can help them all, we will try to do it as much as we can “.
I guess that the reaction from the domestic leagues was positive…
“Yes, very positive to say the least. I’m ready to work”.
The Final Four issues, officiating, and the Super Cup
The Final Four in Athens was ultimately a mixed bag because it was a great event, maybe the biggest Final Four yet, and it was held in a great arena. We have seen some great games, but in the end, we’ve also had a lot of complaints about officiating and a lot of complaints about ticketing. So how do you intend to address those situations?
“Let me start by agreeing with you that it was a great atmosphere, great event, great games. But yes, I don’t hide that we had some critical issues with the ticketing. I apologised then, and I apologise today again to those who had a bad experience getting the tickets on time or getting in the arena on time. We are still auditing everything. We are conducting internal and external audits of the numbers, the process and the platform. In the next few days, I will receive the first report because we wanted to go into detail now that the event is over, and we wanted to do the proper assessment. But, partners-wise, events-wise, we’re happy. If you see the media numbers and the numbers from digital, we’re very happy. We had great numbers, and, yes, it was a challenging event. And you see now, in Greece, they are having the same issues about officiating in the local league, right? So it is a challenging spot, but we’re happy with the results from the media, from the games, and what happened around the event”.
“One thing that I want to say is that there’s always a lot of noise. In my three and a half months, I’ve seen a lot, I’ve received a lot of complaints or noise about officiating and referees, etc. And we are thinking a lot about that, and the next season, my first season taking control, one of the things that we’re thinking about and we are going to implement is to use technology, artificial intelligence, to make the nominations of the referees. So no one can think that there’s any other motivation in nominations, which I don’t believe, by the way. I believe in the integrity of everyone in my organisation; if not, they should be out immediately. But just to eliminate the noise, there will be no argument on why a machine is choosing a referee based on criteria we’re going to put in place with the clubs. Also, we’re talking a lot with the head of the officiating department and the referees about how we can educate and explain a little bit more to the fans why one call is like this or like that. So people will be a little bit more educated on why they’re making some calls during the games, and what they are thinking about when they’re making these calls. I think that transparency and communication build trust. Being transparent in communicating with the fans about all of this is going to build trust among our fans”.
Do you also feel that one of the reasons for these complaints is the mentality of the clubs and the fact that the organisation has not been their main source of business so far? And if the business structure changed, and if the Euroleague became their cash cow, the mentality would change?
“I hope so, but we have to protect the game. The integrity of the game is fundamental. We want to promote a fair game; this has to be the top priority, which it is, but if we can implement more mechanisms to protect and to show that we care about this, it will be fantastic. And of course, to your point, if they see that we’re protecting an asset, and an asset has a value, business value, we have to protect that value. It’s the value of the teams, of the league, of the franchises, and of course, we have to protect that. So I think that from any side, the business, the sport, the fans, they need to feel that the integrity of the game is protected. People can make mistakes. We all make mistakes, but integrity can not be in question.”
Going back to the ticketing issue, you took a lot of hits because in the official press conference of the Final Four, you mentioned that this situation affected 187 people. I guess you will have the final numbers over the weekend, but our understanding is that a lot of people were affected, and the number might be bigger. Are you intending to compensate, in accordance with the findings and the final figures, the fans who had a bad experience?
“We will take a look at that, yes. There are different things. One thing is that everyone who had a ticket got into the arena, or not. Two, people who entered late or not, because of incidents in the delivery of the tickets. Three, whether they were sitting in their place or not. There are three layers here. And I understand it could be different cases because for me, one of the priorities was that everyone who had a ticket got in. I received the first report just 20 hours after the incidents, and this is what I said during the press conference. The report was that this number of people were affected, meaning not allowed to enter, but they ultimately got in. That was relieving in a way, at least they could watch the game. Then, there were other issues with regard to the experience inside the arena. I am waiting for the final report, and then we will have more clarity on everyone who was affected by one or another layer of these incidents.”
Speaking about the Final Four, is there any update about Abu Dhabi and the situation there?
“Abu Dhabi is the host for the 2027 Final Four. We are, of course, monitoring developments in the region and permanently consulting with them. What we’re hearing is that things can go back to normal relatively quickly, maybe in a week or two. We have no control over this, though. Of course, if for any reason we can not go, we will explore other scenarios, but we are not there yet. Abu Dhabi will soon host UFC, NBA, F1, concerts, and that has not changed so far, so we expect, and we hope, that the conditions are right to move forward as planned”.
Do you have any specific plans that can be announced also about the plan for the EuroLeague Super Cup?
“Hopefully, yes, we are trying to launch our first edition. We really don’t want to be under pressure, so if we’re not ready this year, we will start next year. We have a great venue that is interested, and we want to do it there. If not, maybe we’ll postpone it by a year. For now, it seems that we are going to have it in our schedule for next season”.
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