Auctions to join NBA Europe will be held in early 2026

The transition to the new year will represent a new phase for NBA Europe. Sports business journal reports that Mark Tatum, number 2 in the NBA, announced that the auctions for entering the future league of the Old Continent will be held in the first quarter of 2026. This marketing further concretizes the project, while the first season is scheduled for 2027.

The NBA is currently working on all the regulatory and legal contours of this NBA Europe, which will obviously have to be confirmed before the franchises come to fruition.

“We have something to do on this” admitted Mark Tatum, who clarified that it still needs to be worked out “owners”that with “FIBA”. Then the auctions will be opened, after all this legal and financial framework is ratified by the NBA and the International Basketball Federation.

As it has been mentioned for several months, the entry price for entry into the championship will in no case be below 500 million euros. The banks that ordered the NBA, Raine Group and JP Morgan, are currently working on the valuation of these tickets, estimated at between 500 million and 1 billion dollars! Future owners will have it too “obligation” to invest in their infrastructure.

“Like the Basketball Champions League in Europe”

Mark Tatum also confirmed the main lines of NBA Europe announced in 2025 with the competition ideally featuring 12 permanent franchises when it opens. ” It will be almost like the basketball Champions League in Europe » he insisted. ” Brands like Real, Barca, Manchester City, PSG and Milan who will play basketball, it is quite convincing. Premium live content doesn’t only make sense in Europe, but also internationally. It’s in Asia as well as the United States and North America because some of the brands we’re talking about have huge audiences everywhere. »

In addition to the names of Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Munich, Berlin, London, Manchester, Milan, Rome, Istanbul and Athens already whisperedfour additional teams would join NBA Europe each year. ” If you are in Lithuania, Serbia, Croatia or other clubs in these markets, we want every team to have the opportunity to play in this top league. » explained Mark Tatum, who deliberately left out the Euroleague, with which, it seems, there have been no talks lately. ” It will be the best basketball in Europe. If we have the best player in the NBA up to 450, NBA Europe will be from 451 to 900. »

And the NBA has already started thinking about what’s next, with the possibility of an “Intercontinental NBA Cup” in the preseason, or even the qualification of NBA Europe finalists for the NBA Cup across the Atlantic. The sea snake of the true European conference is also still on the NBA’s mind.

« At some point, and I’m talking about the long term again, we could imagine a scenario where the quality of basketball continues to improve in Europe ” said Mark Tatum. ” Now you will have world class infrastructure in these big world class cities. And where supersonic travel becomes a reality, we could later imagine a situation where there will be a division of the NBA in Europe. »