The NBA expansion that no one is talking about….
Firstly, huge shout out to KingCharge (on YouTube) for giving me this idea.
As of now, the NBA has 30 teams. It started with six, grew to 12, then 20 and so on, until they added the Pelicans or the Hornets (I am not sure which sometime within the last decade or so. And mostly, when we think about expansion, we are met with locations such as Las Vegas, or Seattle (which had the Supersonics prior to 2008), or even Vancouver (hey, it pops up occasionally) or Mexico City.
The NBA markets itself as a global phenomenon, and to a large extent, it is. A large amount of the league’s players are from overseas, as compared to in the past, where most NBA players were American. Some games are now being broadcasted live via Youtube, which means that NBA fans who cannot afford League Pass no longer need to settle for just highlights, or piracy.
So will the NBA look for greener pastures abroad, while the domestic market fails?
Chapter 1: Expansion?
For some time, the NBA’s presence in America has been diminished. Domestic fans have complained about the rise
in the number of three point attempts taken, claiming that the game has become “soft”. The NBA’s TV ratings have gone down anywhere from 5%-7% this year, with 42% of all TV ratings plunging early on in the broadcasting schedule.
Despite many political complications, China is the NBA’s largest overseas market. where over 300 million play basketball. League Pass subscriptions have increased in not just China, but also by a staggering 177% in France, and 49% in Slovenia. If we look at social media stats, with 2.1 billion followers worldwide, and 70% residing outside the United States, generating 32 billion views over the course of the 2023–24 season, there is little doubt that the NBA is indeed, global.
But what is the scope for global expansion?
Chapter 2: Games overseas
The first official NBA game overseas was an exhibition match between the Washington Bullets (now the Wizards) and Maccabi Tel Aviv on September 7, 1978. They lost 98–97, and continued their campaign of playing overseas teams in Beijing, Shanghai and Quezon City.
The NBA continued to play a few overseas games every year to boost the League’s overseas presence, with various teams such as the Suns, Rockets, Heat, Mavericks, Jazz, Bucks and Magic playing overseas games down the road.
Then came the McDonalds championship, which was a global basketball tournament, with professional teams from all over the world competing to win the championship. It was played for a total of 9 years, with the tournament ending in 1999. More examples include a number of preseason games that the NBA has held all over the world, and more recently the regular season games (the first time season games have been held overseas) played this year in Paris (Pacers vs Spurs).
However, recently, reports have come out that the NBA has been eyeing the European market a lot more closely. According to ESPN’s Marc Spears, the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, is looking into an expansion in European markets, after meeting with the Board of Governors. Further posts on X (formerly Twitter) revealed:
“It’s early days. Literally nothing has been agreed upon yet,” Silver said. Silver added that he did want to honor the current FIBA and Euro format with 40-minute games and such.
Look, this has pretty big potential. The NBA also teases franchises to be sold in big market cities, such as London and France, which could vastly improve the NBA’s profitability. Remember the jersey which could change the names of the players and logos that the league unveiled in 2021? and Wilson’s 3D printed basketball, which didn’t need air to bounce, first shown in the 2023 dunk contest? The Association can make some pretty bold announcements every now and then, but as to whether this will fizzle out is yet to be seen.
