The worldwide expansion of basketball could throw up a surprising head-to-head, pitting the Gulf region’s financial powerhouses against each other.
On the one side is the UAE’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, owner of the UK’s Manchester City football club, as well as the Qatar Investment Authority, which presides over a $526 billion sovereign wealth fund and another football club, Paris Saint Germain.
Reports suggest both have been approached by the National Basketball Association (NBA) of the US, in partnership with the International Basketball Federation – world basketball’s governing body – to support teams in a proposed new league in Europe.
On the other side is Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which speculation suggests could be a strategic partner, alongside Swiss bank UBS, in a new basketball league spanning Asia and Europe, designed to compete directly with the NBA.
The first scheme, which has been mooted for some time, is being officially discussed by the powers that be in the $4.66 billion NBA as it looks to widen its audience beyond US shores.
Should the NBA go ahead with its franchise plan, it will hope to sprinkle some of that stardust over Europe to attract investors
A European rival to the NBA may not be on the scale of Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which was thrust onto the sporting landscape as a direct competitor to the USPGA Tour and DP World European Tour. Still, it will be interesting to see which faction has the deepest pockets to make its respective league a success.
European basketball already has the Turkish Airways EuroLeague, which counts among its teams Barcelona, Fenerbahçe Beko, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and its most successful side, Real Madrid – all heavy-hitters too on the European football scene.
Despite the sport’s popularity, the EuroLeague holds less than a 1 percent share of the commercial market, according to NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum.
The NBA’s commercial appeal is of a different order. According to the league’s latest report, it has 32 active sponsors and attracts almost $894 million worth of sponsorship revenue each year.
Should the NBA go ahead with its franchise plan, it will hope to sprinkle some of that stardust over Europe to attract investors.
According to reports, eight franchises could be launched across Europe and sold for a fee of about $500 million each.
“Given that basketball is the world’s second favourite sport, there is considerable potential to achieve economic, political and socio-cultural returns from such an investment,” says Simon Chadwick, professor of Afro-Eurasian sport at Emlyon Business School.
Which Gulf country can achieve the slam dunk remains to be seen.
Gavin Gibbon is a senior editor at AGBI
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