EuroLeague’s 10-Year Plan Leans on the Expansion the NBA Asked It to Pause
EuroLeague’s 13 shareholder clubs, the teams that own the league and hold permanent places in it, approved a 10-year business plan that projects €3.4 billion in payments to teams, and the league unveiled it on Friday, according to Euroleague Basketball’s release. Of that, €2.2 billion would come from league revenue and €1.2 billion from franchise fees, the price a new team pays to buy a permanent seat. The clubs signed off at a shareholder meeting on Oct. 6 in Lake Como.
The release also targets €648 million a year in commercial revenue, money from sponsors, media and other deals, by year 10. The league says it grew commercial revenue five-fold over the previous decade.
The expansion line the NBA wanted frozen
The plan arrived less than two weeks after EuroLeague turned down the NBA’s first proposal to work together on a European project, Front Office Sports reports. One part that “particularly irked” EuroLeague owners, FOS writes, was a requirement that the league pause its planned expansion.
Franchise fees make up about 35% of the €3.4 billion the plan projects for teams, by my math from the release. A pause on expansion would have put that share of the payout on hold.
The NBA and FIBA, the sport’s world governing body, said afterward they “remain committed to moving forward with a new professional men’s league in Europe.”
The asking price
Sources told FOS the NBA’s proposal valued EuroLeague at far less than $3 billion, the figure EuroLeague is seeking in any deal. “Wasn’t even close to that,” one source said.
The release puts the league’s own current value at €1.4 billion. At the exchange rate FOS used for its conversions, that is about $1.6 billion, so the $3 billion EuroLeague wants is close to twice its own estimate of itself today.
The release says some of the projected value arrives right away: switching to a franchise model is expected to deliver “an immediate increase” in value from the 2026-27 season, “an anticipated 25% uplift.”
What the owners keep
EuroLeague’s total revenue distribution to teams is about €70 million today, a person familiar told FOS, a figure first reported by Eurohoops. The plan’s €2.2 billion in revenue distributions works out to about €220 million a year on average, roughly three times today’s level, by my math.
EuroLeague has 20 teams now, FOS reports: the 13 permanent shareholders plus seven that qualify by winning the EuroCup or through short-term licenses. It intends to grow to as many as 24.
CFO Xavi Puyada said in the release that “Clubs will keep ownership on a valuable asset without requiring any additional risks or investments.” The league also plans tighter Financial Fair Play rules, which tie club spending to revenue, and a new venue-financing arm, VenueCO.
Sources
- Euroleague Basketball: Euroleague Basketball unveils 10-year business plan
- Front Office Sports: EuroLeague Sets $9B Valuation Target in 10-Year Plan
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