NBA Europe and FIBA Move Forward on 16‑Team Continental Basketball League
The plan centers on heavy, guaranteed club payments and a 12-permanent-plus-four-qualifier format while organizers press owners for binding bids by the end of June.
Overview
- League organizers are proposing a 16-team competition that combines 12 permanent franchises with four merit-based qualification spots to blend NBA franchising and European sporting traditions.
- The financial model would deliver the vast majority of revenue to clubs early on, with organizers projecting roughly 90% of league economics to clubs over the first decade and hundreds of millions in guaranteed payments from day one.
- NBA Europe says it has held constructive talks with historic Turkish clubs, including Galatasaray, and highlighted Istanbul as a key metropolitan hub for the new league.
- Organizers, who have met with EuroLeague leadership and FIBA, are seeking final binding bids from international ownership groups by the end of June and plan to name selected metropolitan hubs in autumn if sufficient partners commit.
- If talks with existing European bodies do not produce full alignment organizers have signaled they will proceed with committed partners, a move that could reshuffle the continent’s club calendar and revenue pools and affect how national leagues and the EuroLeague operate going forward.