EuroLeague answers NBA Europe with a 24-team, €3.4 billion plan and warns a rival league would be ‘a disaster’

The EuroLeague has given its answer to NBA Europe, and it is a business plan rather than a merger. Two weeks after its owners turned down the NBA’s first collaboration proposal, Europe’s top club competition has laid out a 10-year strategy built on permanent franchises, four new teams, two conferences and a projected €3.4 billion in payouts to its clubs. Its chief executive also had a warning for the NBA.

“If they decide to (enter into the market), it’s going to be a disaster. And they know, we know, and we don’t want that,” EuroLeague CEO Chus Bueno told Reuters on Monday, the day before the NBA opens its 2026-27 season.

What the EuroLeague approved

All 13 shareholder clubs of Euroleague Commercial Assets approved the plan, which the league made public on Friday, Oct. 16. The economic terms came out of the owners’ two-day meeting at Lake Como on Oct. 6, the same meeting where the NBA’s proposal was rejected.

The numbers are ambitious. The league puts its own current value at about €1.4 billion and the combined value of its licensed clubs at about €1.8 billion. Over 10 years it projects the league itself reaching €7.98 billion, about 5.7 times today’s figure and close to $9 billion, while the current clubs’ combined value triples to €5.4 billion. Together that would be more than €13 billion.

EuroLeague 10-year plan	Figure
Shareholder clubs that approved it	13 of 13
Projected league value in year 10	€7.98 billion (about €1.4 billion today)
Projected value of current licensed clubs	€5.4 billion (about €1.8 billion today)
Total payouts to clubs over 10 years	€3.4 billion
From league revenue	€2.2 billion
From expansion franchise fees	€1.2 billion
Annual commercial revenue target, year 10	€648 million
League size	20 now, 24 from 2027-28
Binding expansion offers	15, worth about €1.2 billion combined
Expansion windows	2027 and 2031

Of the €3.4 billion in projected distributions, €2.2 billion would come from league revenue and €1.2 billion from franchise fees paid by new teams. The league is targeting €648 million in annual commercial revenue by the 10th year. It also admits the starting point is shaky: only about 40 percent of its licensed clubs are considered financially sustainable today, and the plan aims to get all of them there by the end of its first phase.

Franchises, four new teams and two conferences

The 13 shareholder clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce, Anadolu Efes, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Zalgiris, Bayern Munich and Olimpia Milano, are turning their 10-year licenses into permanent franchise licenses without paying an entry fee. The league expects that switch alone to lift the value of the clubs and the competition by about 25 percent starting this season.

The bigger change is on the court. EuroLeague president Dejan Bodiroga said on the Radar Forum program that the competition will grow from 20 to 24 teams in 2027-28 and drop the format where every team plays every other team. “Next year, we are changing the format from the current 20 clubs, where everyone plays with everyone, to 24 teams, where there will be practically two conferences,” he said, adding that the criteria for splitting the conferences have not been set.

The league says it has 15 binding offers from clubs that want in, worth a combined €1.2 billion, and that some have already been accepted. Bueno said the new teams will be announced in mid-November.

Why this matters for NBA Europe

The timing is the point. The NBA and FIBA plan to launch a new European league in the 2027-28 season, the same season the EuroLeague now plans to expand. The NBA’s model, as the league’s Europe chief Giorgos Aivazoglou laid it out earlier this month, has 16 clubs with 12 permanent places and four spots earned through the Basketball Champions League and domestic qualifying tournaments. Our breakdown of NBA Europe’s business case has the full format.

Both projects are chasing the same thing: big clubs in big markets with long-term security. Front Office Sports’ Ben Horney reported, citing sources, that one part of the NBA proposal that angered EuroLeague owners was a request to pause expansion, which the EuroLeague has no intention of doing, and that the NBA’s offer valued the EuroLeague far below the roughly $3 billion it wants in any deal. The 10-year plan reads like a public counter: a valuation target that is three times that figure, and an expansion process that keeps moving.

The NBA and FIBA said after the rejection that they remain committed to a new professional men’s league in Europe and want to build it with partners who share their vision. Adam Silver has said he still expects an agreement and that the project goes ahead either way, as covered in our earlier report on the talks.

“The telephone lines are open”

Bueno did not slam the door. He said the sides spoke again after Lake Como and that the owners’ position is clear, but that the EuroLeague will listen to any deal that works for its clubs.

We will always be open to listen, and to talk with the NBA about any potential deal. But it has to make sense for us. The telephone lines are open and, if something has not worked, maybe there’s something that can work in the future.

He also played down the idea that EuroLeague clubs could break away to join the NBA. The 13 shareholders have signed 10-year franchise agreements tied to the plan, and Bueno said a club that leaves would pay a penalty, could face individual damages claims from the other clubs and would give up more than €80 million in shares. If it ever wanted to come back, it would pay whatever the entry price is at that time. “If you are divided, you lose value, and then some third party benefits,” he said.

What to watch next

The next date is mid-November, when the EuroLeague names its new teams. Any club that joins the EuroLeague’s expansion is one the NBA cannot easily count on for its own permanent places, so those names will show how much room is left for NBA Europe. On the NBA side, the open questions are the same as before: which clubs take its 12 permanent seats, what they will cost, and whether a revised offer can bring the EuroLeague back to the table before both leagues lock in their 2027-28 plans. More league-wide stories are in our Around the league section.