Euroleague: NBA Reportedly Wants 13 Owners, Deadline Today
Gazzetta dello Sport reports that the NBA offer stands only if the Euroleague keeps 13 owners and adds no new franchises. Red Star and Partizan are among the candidates, and an answer is due today.
Thirteen Euroleague owners are sitting at a table at the Villa d’Este on the shore of Lake Como, facing a document with a deadline that, according to Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport, expires today, Tuesday, October 6. The NBA offer reportedly stands only if all thirteen of them remain.
As we reported earlier, Red Star and Partizan are waiting at Lake Como for a vote on new franchises. Today a condition has surfaced that, if accurate, could turn that vote into a formality. The outcome of the meeting was not known at the time of publication.
What does the NBA want from the Euroleague owners?
Gazzetta dello Sport, as relayed by Mozzart Sport and Sport Klub, reports that the NBA sent the Euroleague owners a cooperation proposal that holds only if the ownership structure stays unchanged, at thirteen clubs. Any change, according to the same sources, would wreck a possible deal with the strongest league in the world.
In practice that means no new franchises and a postponed expansion of the competition to 24 clubs. Under the original plan, reported by Mozzart Sport, the league would play with 24 teams starting next season, with eight new places filled from among the candidates.
Sport Klub concludes that this puts Euroleague CEO Chus Bueno, who built the expansion plan, in the position of choosing between faster growth of the competition and cooperation with the NBA. That assessment comes from the outlet, not from the Euroleague.
The authors of the Gazzetta piece also say the American league has gone a long way in Europe, and Sport Klub carries their passage in translation:
“The Euroleague owners’ meeting in Cernobbio is therefore a potentially decisive moment for European basketball. The NBA is coming to the continent regardless, with its own league that is planned to start as early as next year.”
Later in the same piece, negotiations with potential owners are said to have advanced so far that a favorite already exists in each of the 12 cities with permanent franchises. It ends with the line: “A project that will go ahead with or without the Euroleague.”
Where is Belgrade on the NBA map?
The cities NBA Europe is planning, according to Gazzetta, are Milan, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, London, Manchester, Paris, Lyon, Berlin, Munich, Istanbul and Athens. That makes twelve permanent franchises. Belgrade is not among them.
Deputy commissioner Mark Tatum is in charge of the football clubs, according to the same reporting. He attended last week’s meeting of Euroleague owners and held talks with PSG, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Milan. The NBA commissioner is Adam Silver, and Sport Klub writes that it is his wish for the Euroleague not to create franchises that stands behind the condition.
Sport Klub adds that Red Star and Partizan aspire to become Euroleague franchises, so this outcome does not play in their favor.
Who decides in Cernobbio?
Chus Bueno chairs the meeting. The decision belongs to the thirteen current owners:
- Real Madrid
- Barcelona
- Baskonia
- Panathinaikos
- Olympiacos
- Anadolu Efes
- Fenerbahce
- Olimpia Milano
- Maccabi Tel Aviv
- Zalgiris
- Bayern Munich
- ASVEL
- CSKA, which is suspended
According to B92, the owners are gathering today and tomorrow, so an official decision may not arrive on the day the deadline expires.
How many candidates are there for eight franchises, and where do the sources disagree?
Here the sources diverge. B92 lists thirteen candidates that passed the first round of evaluation: Valencia, Virtus Bologna, Paris, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Red Star, Partizan, PAOK, Napoli, Dubai, London Lions and Roma Maxima, with Aris Thessaloniki and Hapoel Jerusalem joining them later. Mozzart Sport writes about eleven clubs, without Aris and Hapoel Jerusalem. Which list is more current is not clear from these reports.
The guaranteed bids from the candidates, according to B92, add up to more than 900 million euros. Money is not the only criterion. The Euroleague is weighing long-term sustainability, financial stability, ownership structure, sporting potential, market size, fan base, media impact and the amount a club is willing to pay for a franchise. An additional check is under way to confirm that the guarantees offered are real.
For the home audience, the licenses matter most. Partizan’s and Red Star’s run through the end of the 2027/28 season, as does Valencia’s, while the Euroleague awarded Dubai a five-year license through 2029/30. B92 estimates that both Belgrade teams are among the candidates with the best chances, thanks to their market and fan base. Italian media, the same source says, report that Virtus Bologna has prepared an investment of about 50 million euros over the next ten years. Hapoel Tel Aviv played nearly all of its home games in Sofia last season because of the security situation in Israel.
What comes after Lake Como?
The first real answer is today’s owner deadline, and the sources we read contain no official Euroleague statement on the outcome. Mozzart Sport warns that conflicting information has come from various sides over the past 24 hours, and that the facts will be known only once the owners speak from Lake Como. If the Gazzetta condition is confirmed, the vote on eight franchises would not even reach the agenda. If it is not, Red Star and Partizan go into a selection among thirteen candidates, or eleven.
