Mark Tatum, the right-hand man of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, spoke to Sportico about the NBA Europe project. Italy could be home to two teams in the new competition, according to his statements.
Mark Tatum’s words:
“If you’re a fan, it’s difficult to follow professional basketball in Europe. It’s easy to follow the NBA, but it’s hard to follow European basketball. The highest level of the EuroLeague is missing some of Europe’s biggest commercial markets. There is no top-level team in the United Kingdom, which is Europe’s largest market. There is no first-tier basketball team there: not in London, not in Manchester. There is no stable top-level team in major leagues in Paris, Berlin or Rome. As a result, they are missing the biggest commercial markets, and that’s why they struggle to commercialize basketball.”
Two teams in Italy:
“Our idea is to create this league, with between 12 and 16 teams, where the most important countries will have permanent franchises. We’re talking about the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Italy and France. Two teams in each of these markets, which we know for sure will have franchises, and then we will open the project to the rest of the ecosystem.”
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