Sport Industry Group

SIBC 11: NBA wants European team by 2021- 4 Mar 2011 00:00:00

Speaking exclusively at the Nolan Partners Sport Industry Breakfast Club in front of a packed room of industry executives, Adam Silver, Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the NBA, said that the organisation is working towards running a basketball franchise in Europe within the next ten years.

Talking to interviewer Mark Pougatch ahead of the first regular season game to be staged in Europe, Silver explained the NBA’s plan to expand the brand around the globe.

He said: ‘One of the key components to building our game in markets around the world is to have indigenous players from that market.

‘Even one outstanding player makes a huge difference in terms of popularity of the sport in that country.'

Silver is keen to promote the NBA to other countries but recognised that, for the moment at least, there are positives: ‘One advantage we have over for example the Premier League, is there is only one top brand in basketball right now in the world, and that’s NBA, so kids, whether they’re growing up in New Orleans or China, they aspire to play in the NBA’.

Silver also gave an insight into the salary cap system in place at the NBA, an issue that has been widely discussed in this country:

‘It’s a revenue sharing system. In essence we take the total pool of revenue, Basketball Related Income (BRI), which is roughly $4.3bn, we then negotiate a revenue of that that goes to the players. In our case that is 57%’.

The NBA is about to begin negotiations with the players to renew the Collective Bargaining Agreement which dictates salary conditions across the league. Failure to agree a new deal could lead to a lock-out with no games taking place - a scenario the NFL currently finds itself in after extending the deadline to sign its own CBA.

The New Jersey Nets will take on the Toronto Raptors in two back-to-back games at The O2 Arena this weekend - the first regular season games to take place in Europe.

The NBA Games – London 2011 presented by Thomson Sport, will be televised live in more than 200 countries and territories in 28 languages, and also accessible live on NBA.com and mobile phones in more than 200 countries and territories.

In the UK, ESPN will televise the two regular-season games in prime time as part of its ‘Free Weekend’ where the channel will be made available to non-subscribers.

On radio, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra will also broadcast the games live, while BBC Radio 5 Live will air special coverage from The O2 which will include live reports from roving correspondents.

Silver was the first interviewee of the Nolan Partners Sport Industry Breakfast Club 2011 with three further events still to come later in the year. Click here to attend the next event on 15th June with RFU chief executive John Steele.