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Post by gloryeagle on Aug 6, 2020 21:41:42 GMT
According to bbl_fix on twitter EuroLeague are seeking investment of at least £100 million to set up a EuroLeague franchise in London. the team would not compete in the BBL, just EuroLeague, and would receive £20 million per season.
Whether this has any legitimacy at all is another debate, but what do we all think of the prospect?
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Post by gloryeagle on Aug 6, 2020 21:46:05 GMT
Couple of points from me;
- Is anyone really willing to invest that amount of money right now on a project that could easily fall flat on its face?
- If they were funded correctly they would have the potential to lure some real top talent with the carrot of being based in London
- Where would they play? Is the Copper Box suitable for EuroLeague
- Would this detract from the BBL, or would the fact it's such a different level mean it had no effect?
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Post by drivethebody on Aug 6, 2020 22:07:16 GMT
Possibly share the new MSG2 they are building in E15 (although with corona i’d guess that’s gotten a back seat now)?
The talk of the franchise NBA team in it seems like a lifetime ago tho
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Post by notoriousbigz on Aug 6, 2020 22:31:46 GMT
Absolute pipedream.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2020 23:24:59 GMT
Ain't going to happen, there was also talk of a London KHL (Mostly Russian based ice hockey league) team but haven't heard much on that front either. Surely they'll realise there isn't as much appetite for the sport in terms of domestic league ie, the BBL. How are you going to convince the general public to care?
I'm just being realistic here.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2020 5:27:05 GMT
The Euroleague NEEDS London more than the UK needs the Euroleague. He also needs Paris. Their model is broken also as the top teams will not abandon their national leagues in favor of Euroleague.
National leagues are critical and FIBA/BCL are better suited to grow the sport. That said, FIBA is also in deep financial trouble. So after the pandemic is over in a few years, we will then see what the basketball landscape will look like and it will be VERY different throughout Europe.
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skeg
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Post by skeg on Aug 7, 2020 10:03:17 GMT
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the first and last time we hear about it.
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Post by Solly on Aug 7, 2020 11:18:59 GMT
Have just been listening to SamBearsThunder's (excellent) podcast with Jack Macjewski where he talked about the same sort of pipedream with BBL cellar-dwellers London United, where their longer-term plan was to play out of the O2 
I applaud London Utd's ambition but think they had already soiled any potential bigtime support by playing out of Islington and accumulating so many bad losses.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2020 12:56:09 GMT
I can't see why an investment of £100mill is needed to start a euroleague team, unless the competition want a large slice of that as a franchisee fee in which case they're likely out of luck. Drunky has a point about euroleague needing london more that London because the only way London needs it is if there was a suitable venue sitting underused - and that's not a great reason anyway. Clubs won't abandon theur national league because it generates cash for them, guarantees them a level of success they won't always get in euroleague . Players wouldn't take less money if a tesm only played euroleague so London would be at a disadvantage whether they played in the BBL or not. Above all, it wont happen becauae there are real signs there's a market for it. And even if the magic number was 50 mill to cover start up costs and 3 year's outgoings no one is goibg to spend that on a market that even the NBA gave up on daveballblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/goodbye-nba/ |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2020 13:24:29 GMT
I can't see why an investment of £100mill is needed to start a euroleague team, unless the competition want a large slice of that as a franchisee fee in which case they're likely out of luck. Drunky has a point about euroleague needing london more that London because the only way London needs it is if there was a suitable venue sitting underused - and that's not a great reason anyway. Clubs won't abandon theur national league because it generates cash for them, guarantees them a level of success they won't always get in euroleague . Players wouldn't take less money if a tesm only played euroleague so London would be at a disadvantage whether they played in the BBL or not. Above all, it wont happen becauae there are real signs there's a market for it. And even if the magic number was 50 mill to cover start up costs and 3 year's outgoings no one is goibg to spend that on a market that even the NBA gave up on daveballblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/goodbye-nba/ Finally something we can agree on while being civil! This is a good start. The carpetbagger approach by Euroleague and BCL won’t work. I would have thought the real investment opportunity would be in grassroots, then strengthening/producing a top national league and only then would forays into Europe makes sense. Other than that, it would be a house of cards. |
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gyan
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Post by gyan on Aug 8, 2020 14:22:58 GMT
There's also the issue that the UK media don't even like to acknowledge the existence of European basketball. I think that was proven beyond doubt when they completely ignored the Euroleague Final 4 in London in 2013. They are so hung up on the idea of basketball as an exclusively American pastime and the existence of high level competition in Europe runs contrary to that narrative. As we know, most sports fans in the UK would have little idea of even a British basketball league. With a hostile media and an uninformed public it's difficult to break through.
It always makes me laugh when the BBC etc ask someone connected to the NBA about how the sport can grow in the UK, as if this is a process unconnected to the media. If there was some political reason to do so, they'd be promoting basketball like they've done with netball and women's football. Maybe instead of asking how far off an NBA team in London is, they should be wondering why UK teams are so far off from actually competing in the quality competition that already exists on their own continent.
Btw, Dunkster is right- grow from the grassroots.
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Post by chesterdonnelly on Nov 11, 2020 21:54:51 GMT
Of course it can happen. London is full of people from countries with professional basketball. Countries like France and USA.
A lot of people with money to invest in professional sports teams, and money to invest in London, come from countries where basketball is a major sport.
Basketball is the second most popular team sport in the World.
London is the capital of basketball in Britain, and Britain is one of Europe's major cities.
The BBC can decide that basketball is now really important and keep mentioning in on 5Live, like they do with women's football, women's cricket, women's rugby, netball.
It's not like the super rich never invest unwisely in sports teams. Who would have predicted that someone would set up a Super League team in Toronto?
The reason why people don't like BBL is not because they don't like basketball. I know plenty of people who like basketball but don't watch BBL. Plenty of people across the country would be excited to watch a London team in the Euroleague.
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