The NBA’s plan for a new Europe-based professional league is turning into a full-on money magnet, and New York’s team owners are very much on board. At the league’s March 24-25 board of governors meeting, owners gave overwhelming support to pushing the project ahead after hearing that more than 120 prospective investors and clubs had filed proposals, with most bids landing in the $500 million to $1 billion range and several reportedly climbing even higher.
The working blueprint calls for 12 permanent teams in major European markets: London, Manchester, Paris, Lyon, Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Munich, Athens and Istanbul. It is an ambitious map that reads like a greatest-hits tour of European basketball hotbeds and big-spending capitals.
"The level of engagement and the scale of the bids reflect the marketplace's belief in our proposed model," NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said, as the league confirmed it will now review proposals and narrow down potential partners, according to Reuters. A successful bid through the joint NBA and FIBA process would be the only route to a permanent spot in the new competition. That position follows the NBA’s initial March announcement that it was exploring a Europe league with FIBA and that any new competition would be integrated with national leagues in order to preserve domestic play.
Where the Money Is Headed
According to industry reporting, the league has asked potential investors to submit non-binding proposals, with franchise fees pitched in the half-billion to billion-dollar range and some bidders already coming in above that mark as the NBA and FIBA test different operating models and commercial partnerships. Early business details, including the presence of advisers and discussion of a possible 2027 launch, were outlined by SportsBusiness Journal, which has been tracking the project’s financial game plan.
Teams, the EuroLeague and a Tug of War
The proposal has rattled Europe’s club landscape and forced fresh conversations with the existing powerhouse in the region, the EuroLeague. Leadership changes there, and an active debate over cooperation versus confrontation, have taken on new urgency. Spanish coverage of the appointment of EuroLeague chief Chus Bueno has framed the new boss as a possible bridge between the EuroLeague and the NBA instead of a combatant, a dynamic chronicled by El País.
What’s Next
League officials say they will sift through the submissions, prioritize the most serious bids, and announce teams on a rolling basis rather than dropping a full list all at once. They also remain in active talks with EuroLeague leadership about how clubs could be slotted into any new structure, according to Reuters. That framework mirrors what the NBA laid out in its March release, which described plans to integrate a new competition with national leagues and to build in merit-based qualification paths, per NBA.com.
If the biggest clubs and the deepest-pocketed investors climb aboard, analysts say the new competition could shake up domestic calendars, rewrite TV and sponsorship packages, and spur fresh spending on arenas. At the same time, it could crank up tensions in a basketball ecosystem that has long been steered by domestic leagues and the EuroLeague, industry observers warn. Those scenarios, along with the league’s "next stage" briefing for owners, were detailed by SportsBusiness Journal, which has followed the project’s commercial blueprint from the start.
