Latest news with #Euroleague
Arabian Business
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Arabian Business
'It has to be authentic': Euroleague's CMO on expansion without selling out
When Alex Ferrer Kristjansson joined Euroleague Basketball two decades ago, the league was an underdog with ambition. 'Back then we were a group of young people just learning and putting a lot of effort in trying to build something,' he says. 'It was a new thing. It was an innovative sports property, and we had a lot of ambition. And now, you know, when we see where we are now… it's a completely different animal.' Today, Ferrer finds himself spearheading Euroleague's entry into one of the world's fastest-growing sports markets: the Middle East. The decision to bring the Final Four to Abu Dhabi signals more than geographic expansion – it's a referendum on the league's global relevance, commercial strategy, and cultural integrity. 'It's not that we are moving the Euroleague to the Middle East, you know,' Ferrer insists. 'It's one event where we are bringing all that experience to a new audience.' With basketball's international appeal rising – especially among diaspora-heavy, sport-hungry cities like Abu Dhabi and Dubai – Euroleague is testing how far its brand of deeply European basketball can travel, and whether doing so will strengthen or splinter its identity. Basketball, the European way The core question is one of cultural transference: Can Euroleague's brand of 'authentic' basketball thrive in a region long dominated by football and one that is already a magnet for global sports events? 'Authenticity is a great word,' Ferrer says. 'This European basketball culture is very, very deeply rooted and very solid. I think there's nothing wrong with exporting that or showing that to new audiences and exposing that to new audiences, new regions, which is what we're doing here with this Final Four.' 'But obviously, yes, we have to make sure that we protect that authenticity… I don't think there's any risk of that authenticity being destroyed in any way.' He adds, 'If it's not the record in history, it's one of the quickest sold outs, for sure… and what we are seeing now here – all the support from the local authorities and the quality of the event… it has all the ingredients to be a success.' Why Abu Dhabi, why now? From a business lens, the logic is clear. 'It just speaks about the maturity of the league, what it has become, and the growing interest it is experiencing, not only in Europe, but in a global basis,' Ferrer explains. 'We have seen the Middle East taking a very relevant role within sports, not only basketball, right? With investments in sports properties across the globe, but also in major events happening here… You see Formula One, you see NBA, you see UFC, now you see the Euroleague. We're part of that.' 'What we see here is opportunity. What exactly that means, that is what we don't know yet… and that is the main reason why we decided to bring the Final Four here… to see how a new market like this one responds to our offering and our product, and then take it from there.' Ferrer doesn't pretend Euroleague will challenge football's dominance — nor does it need to. 'We don't aspire to compete with football, but we really believe we have something unique… The fact that football is strong doesn't mean that there cannot be interest for other stuff, other entertainment, right?' 'As long as the entertainment offering is good enough, I think there's space for everyone.' What happens after the final buzzer? Is this a one-off? Ferrer is candid: 'We will see. We don't know how permanent our presence in the Middle East will be… This is a very first step in that ambition. And we want to first understand, you know, how it works out, what the results of this event are.' 'We're looking at the world. That's what we're looking at. We want to grow our presence everywhere. And presence doesn't mean physical presence. You know, it can be different ways of presence in different regions.' Still, the groundwork is already being laid. One topic under serious consideration: adding a Dubai-based team to the league. 'In terms of outside Europe, meaning the Middle East, Dubai is on the radar, and it has a good chance of becoming a reality,' he says. But he adds a critical caveat: 'Whatever is built here, it needs to be built in an authentic way. If you want it to last, it cannot be built based on a fake product that you just invent and expect to be successful and put a lot of money behind… it needs to be something that has a long-term strategy and has the right support from the right people, the right authorities.' Not the NBA – and proud of it Invariably, comparisons to the NBA arise. But Ferrer dismisses the rivalry narrative. 'Everybody asks about us competing with the NBA. I don't see it that way… The NBA is basketball. The Euroleague is basketball. It's a different product, in my view.' 'They're better at some things, and we are a lot better in some other things… But it's not about competing with them… If we are successful, I think that the NBA will benefit greatly about it… It's just building, creating more and more basketball fans, and that's in everyone's interest.' Legacy in motion Having spent 20 years shaping Euroleague's evolution, Ferrer's vision is long-term but grounded. 'Sometimes you live the moment and it's difficult to look back,' he reflects. 'When I take a moment and look back 20 years ago, you realise how much this Euroleague has changed.' 'If I have any legacy in this league, it's about contributing to that growth… It's beautiful to see how we, together with all the many people, built this into what it is today.'
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
NBA Europe is coming but British basketball is locked in a civil war. What will it mean?
There is potentially little more than a year before the NBA launches a new professional basketball league in Europe in partnership with FIBA, the sport's governing body — and the United Kingdom is prominent in their sights. 'I'd say it's the single biggest opportunity (in Europe),' said George Aivazoglou, the NBA's managing director for Europe and the Middle East (EME), speaking onstage at SportsPro Live at London's Kia Oval earlier this month. Advertisement Details of the proposed new league are not yet fully defined, but the NBA's laser-like focus on having teams in major European cities has been clear from the outset. In the UK, London and Manchester are being earmarked for representation in a 16-team competition that could also feature teams from Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Rome, Milan and Istanbul, according to Aivazoglou, when he spoke to EuroHoops. Many of those continental European cities are already home to teams that compete in Euroleague, which has established itself as the second-best basketball league in the world since breaking away from FIBA in 2000. But no British team has ever competed in it. This season, the UK does not even have a representative in Eurocup, regarded as Euroleague's second-tier club competition. No wonder, then, that the UK is regularly referred to as the sleeping giant of European basketball. This almost total lack of relevance at the elite professional level jars with soaring levels of interest and participation in the sport among the general population. Basketball is the second-most popular team sport in the UK behind football, according to Sport England's most recent Active Lives survey. Data compiled by the NBA indicates that the UK is its second-largest merchandise market in Europe behind only France, and home to more current subscribers to NBA League Pass — the league's premium live game subscription service — than any European country other than Germany. Virtually everyone with an interest in basketball sees fertile ground for growth in the UK, and the establishment of two NBA Europe franchises in London and Manchester in 2026 could be genuinely transformative. But as things stand, the hypothetical giant that is British basketball is not simply sleeping. It is stuck in a self-destructive nightmare. Last Sunday was the flagship event of the British club basketball season, as 13,401 spectators attended the O2 Arena in London to watch the inaugural Super League Basketball (SLB) playoff finals. You would be forgiven for being unaware; while the women's and men's finals were available to watch live for free on DAZN, media coverage of the event was scant and there were no post-game press conferences. Advertisement The action on the court was not elite, but it was fast, physical and compellingly competitive (for the most part — Leicester Riders ultimately blew out Newcastle Eagles 105-74 in the men's final). The arena experience would be familiar to NBA fans: pumping music and dancers during breaks in play, cheerleaders at half-time, presenters trying to get the crowd going, and even a 'kiss cam' on the giant screens dangling from the roof. Much of the crowd skewed very young, with a multitude of schools represented. The abiding impression was of a fun, family-friendly day out, and a reasonably priced one at that, with lower tier seats for the afternoon priced at £48 ($64) for adults and £34 ($46) for children and cheaper tickets available higher up. That might have been enough for Sunday to be viewed as a success by Super League Basketball. The league was formed last summer by the nine professional clubs left standing amid the wreckage of the British Basketball League, which had its operating license terminated by the British Basketball Federation (BBF) in June 2024 due to the liquidation of Miami-based minority investor 777 Partners. At that time, the BBF worked closely with the clubs to ensure the 2024-25 season could take place, granting SLB an interim license to operate the league and even stepping in to help save several clubs including the London Lions, who were also owned by 777. But the absence of any BBF representatives at the O2 Arena on Sunday highlighted the full-blown civil war between UK's basketball governing body and its major clubs that has been raging since January. The BBF awarded a 15-year license to operate the men's professional league to a group of American investors led by Marshall Glickman, formerly a Portland Trail Blazers president and acting CEO of Euroleague. Advertisement SLB clubs were outraged, questioning the legality of the BBF's tender process and raising their concerns with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), as well as with UK Sport and Sport England, who have pledged a combined £4.5million in funding to British basketball over the next four years. The clubs have also refused to engage with GBB League Ltd (GBBL), the company set up by Glickman and his fellow investors to run the new league. At its nub, the dispute is about control. The consensus view among SLB club owners is that the BBF has essentially sold their commercial rights to a third party without their consent, and that any league not majority-owned by its member clubs is not viable. There is also a belief that the BBF's decision was primarily motivated by the £15million — coincidentally the same number that SLB clubs say they have invested in the first year of their league — that Glickman's group pledged up front to 'support operations and growth activities' over the first two years of GBBL's operations. BBF chair Chris Grant has a different view on both of those points. 'People in and around the clubs have grown used over the last 40 years to running the league as well as their clubs,' he tells The Athletic. 'This is all based on good faith and people wanting the best for British basketball and their clubs. They felt that they had to protect their competitions, their clubs, from other forces in basketball. I think that desire to control it is partly the result of habit. 'All we are trying to be is a federation. We're not trying to be an empire. We're trying to not be huge. I have this phrase that I use, which is minimum viable federation. What's the minimum viable capacity that we need to do our job? And our job is to get brilliant basketball on the court, to get great development for players and coaches.' Grant maintains he does not know why SLB did not submit their own bid for the license, and is bullish on the integrity of the process that led to Glickman's group being chosen. 'We only had one bid, but the competition wasn't between bidders,' he insists. 'We got a 20-page analysis back from our independent panel with a review, and it was agreed that their bid cleared our bar. 'They had a humility but also a basic level of understanding around Britain-specific things (to do with the home countries) that convinced us that they could run a British league, and not simply parachute some North American idea of a league into this country.' Glickman is full of ideas as he speaks from his home in Portland. The CEO of the newly-minted GBBL enthusiastically lays out the broad strokes of his grand plan to raise up British basketball. 'A core part of our strategy is to showcase a limited number of games on free-to-air television,' he says. 'By following that strategy, we're not going to be able to command meaningful rights fees for free-to-air television, but we're not trying to. We want great viewership.' Advertisement GBBL plans to launch in the 2026-27 season with 10 teams who will face each other home and away. 'But there's another core part of our strategy, a key pillar, which is what we're calling mini-tournaments,' he adds. 'We'll bring four clubs into a market for a weekend where there's a proper arena. We're having a kind of basketball festival, but more than that, it's really a communal gathering. 'There'll be art, there'll be culture, there'll be food, there'll be pubs and there'll be music big time. We're going to turn these weekends into something that people are going to want to be at whether or not they're a hardcore basketball fan. Hopefully we're going to turn them into basketball fans.' These mini-tournaments would yield points that contribute to regular season standings and playoff seedings, encouraging all the teams involved to compete hard on both days. 'It gives us a platform to showcase the game in proper arenas with a great atmosphere, cool things like a glass floor, for example — things that really make it pop.' Glickman describes GBBL as an 'innocent bystander' in the dispute between the SLB and BBF, and is clear that he wants the nine SLB clubs to be in his new league. 'We would like to see the Super League clubs be part of the future of British basketball,' he says. 'We fully embrace that and we continue to try reaching out.' On the surface this appears to sit uneasily with Glickman and the BBF's desire to see more major British cities represented at the top-level of club basketball; a press release issued last week revealed that GBBL would issue invitations to parties interested in operating expansion clubs in Birmingham, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Southampton/Portsmouth, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Coventry — none of which currently have SLB teams. But the first right to join GBBL is reserved for the nine SLB clubs. 'If all nine clubs wanted to participate, then we'd only have one expansion club in the first year,' Glickman clarifies. What does not appear to be on the table, however, is the level of control over GBBL that SLB clubs currently hold over their own league. 'Our governance will include board seats — observational board seats,' Glickman says. 'Which means full transparency and access to everything in the decision-making process, but non-voting, for two clubs on a rotating basis.' Advertisement Glickman also wants to create a more attractive domestic alternative for the best young British basketball talent to the well-worn path of leaving for the American college system. 'Welfare standards need to improve, training standards need to improve,' he insists. 'Part of what we're going to do is really commit ourselves to being a player-centric league, and improve the conditions for the players and make it attractive for the best British talent to stay home.' Home-grown player salaries would be exempt from GBBL's economic rules on sustainability and competitive balance. 'It has to make sense for them financially, but more importantly, it has to make sense for them in terms of developing and accelerating their career path,' he adds. Then there is the NBA and FIBA's European project. GBBL is actively positioning itself as the natural home for any British franchises. 'The NBA coming to Europe from my perspective and from a Great Britain perspective is the best thing that could ever happen,' Glickman says. 'This is the sixth biggest GDP in the world. They need basketball in the UK to be lifted up. This is in their interests, and it's in my interests, and it is in my partners' interests, and it's in the SLB clubs' interests. It's in everybody's interests to bring it up, to uplift it.' In their efforts to establish new leagues from scratch, the NBA and GBBL are effectively operating in parallel with one shared goal in mind: to launch in time for the 2026-27 season. That happens to follow swiftly from the moment when Euroleague's 10-year license expires, providing shareholder clubs with a window to opt out. Real Madrid and Barcelona are widely believed to be keeping their options open regarding a potential NBA defection, as is ASVEL Villeurbanne, the French club majority owned by San Antonio Spurs legend Tony Parker. Earlier this month ALBA Berlin departed from Euroleague after 24 years to join FIBA's Basketball Champions League, with the club's managing director Marco Baldi pointedly voicing his belief that 'the European competitions under the FIBA umbrella will develop significantly in the coming years'. Euroleague may not be cracking just yet, but it is creaking. Advertisement There is no indication that British basketball's civil war will end soon. Both the BBF and GBBL project total confidence in the legality of their path to this point and believe that FIBA is on their side. The SLB clubs are adamant their cause is just and have asked basketball's governing body for recognition as they prepare to operate outside the jurisdiction of the BBF. What happens next could even undermine the recent progress British basketball has made at international level, which has seen both the men and women's senior teams qualifying for Eurobasket this year — not least because the license issued by the BBF to GBBL does not cover the women's league. 'In this day and age it's terrible to overlook women's sport,' Vanessa Ellis, coach of Sheffield Hatters, said after her team's 83-73 victory over Oaklands Wolves in the SLB women's playoff final at the O2 Arena. 'We know we're not in their plans — so what's going to happen to us? Nobody is going to support a women's league on its own. We haven't got that profile.' There is also the worrying precedent of Japan, which was banned from participating FIBA competitions in 2014 for its failure to merge two rival professional leagues. Earlier this year, the captains of Great Britain's men's and women's senior teams (Carl Wheatle and Temi Fagbenle) were among several current and former players to sign an open letter to the BBF board urging greater clarity over the GBBL proposal. 🇬🇧🏀Here's to transparency, togetherness and a better future for British basketball. We look forward to your response, @gbbasketball 🇬🇧🏀*reposted with correct date* — Temitope Fagbenle (@TemiFagbenle) March 12, 2025 'The UK should be a place where young and pro players alike can choose to develop, rather than feel they must go overseas to improve,' they said. 'Many pro players currently playing overseas would relish the opportunity to come back home, but it is not sustainable in the current league set-up. 'British professional basketball has been stagnating and there is much uncertainty. We have waited patiently for many years, but our concerns regarding the future are valid.' That uncertainty is going nowhere, and when the time comes for the NBA to try to wake the sleeping giant of European basketball, there is no telling what they will find.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Oklahoma State basketball signs forward Lefteris Mantzoukis from Greek pro league
STILLWATER —Oklahoma State basketball coach Steve Lutz has landed one of his most intriguing recruits to date, signing 6-foot-9 Greek forward Lefteris Mantzoukis on Monday, according to multiple online reports. The 21-year-old Mantzoukis has been playing professionally in Europe since the age of 14. He won a Euroleague championship with Panathinaikos, then spent this past season on loan to Maroussi in the Greek Basketball League. Advertisement Over 24 games, he averaged 7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. He shot 41% from 3-point range on 2.3 attempts per game. From 2021-24, Mantzoukis played in 53 Euroleague games, going 28 of 62 (45.2%) from 3-point range. Mantzoukis brings OSU's scholarship count to 13 players for the 2025-26 season, leaving Lutz with two spots to fill in the coming months. More: Which Oklahoma State basketball players are coming, going via the transfer portal? Scott Wright covers Oklahoma State athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Scott? He can be reached at swright@ or on Twitter at @ScottWrightOK. Sign up for the Oklahoma State Cowboys newsletter to access more OSU coverage. Support Scott's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at or by using the link at the top of this page. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State basketball signs Greek forward Lefteris Mantzoukis
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
WNBA stars Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley welcome daughter
Allie Quigley, left, and Courtney Vandersloot, both formerly of the Chicago Sky, in Chicago in 2022. (Kena Krutsinger / NBAE via Getty Images file) WNBA all-stars Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley have apparently welcomed their first child together. Their daugher, Jana Christine Vandersloot Quigley, was born on April 8, according to People magazine. Advertisement "We are over the moon to welcome our baby girl to the world," Vandersloot and Quigly, told People in an exclusive interview. "We have been dreaming of this moment for a long time, and it's better than we could have ever imagined!" Representatives for the couple did not immediately reply to a request for comment to confirm the news of their daughter's birth. Photos shared with People show the family, including their dog, posing at the foot of a white bed. Vandersloot and Quigley were married in 2018, years after meeting on a flight home from Slovakia at the conclusion of the 2012-2013 Euroleague season, People reported. They were both en route to Chicago to prepare for the upcoming WNBA season with the Sky. Advertisement 2013 marked Quigley's debut season with the Chicago Sky, where she remained until 2022. She opted out to sit out the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Vandersloot has been playing for the Sky since 2011, save for two seasons in New York in 2023 and 2024. This article was originally published on
NBC News
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
WNBA Stars Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley welcome daughter
WNBA all-stars Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley have apparently welcomed their first child together. Their daugher, Jana Christine Vandersloot Quigley, was born on April 8, according to People magazine. "We are over the moon to welcome our baby girl to the world," Vandersloot and Quigly, told People in an exclusive interview. "We have been dreaming of this moment for a long time, and it's better than we could have ever imagined!" Representatives for the couple did not immediately reply to a request for comment to confirm the news of their daughter's birth. Photos shared with People show the family, including their dog, posing at the foot of a white bed. Vandersloot and Quigley were married in 2018, years after meeting on a flight home from Slovakia at the conclusion of the 2012-2013 Euroleague season, People reported. They were both en route to Chicago to prepare for the upcoming WNBA season with the Sky. 2013 marked Quigley's debut season with the Chicago Sky, where she remained until 2022. She opted out to sit out the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Vandersloot has been playing for the Sky since 2011, save for two seasons in New York in 2023 and 2024.
