Real Madrid maintains its commitment to the new NBA Europe project, and according to Spanish outlet AS, they will not hesitate in leaving Euroleague, currently Europe's biggest basketball club competition (which Real Madrid, one of its founding members, has won a record of 11 times, most recently in 2023) to join the planned NBA project, expected to start in 2027/28 season.
Real Madrid "will be the figurehead of this project if nothing goes wrong; and it seems increasingly unlikely that anything will go wrong", according to AS, and will make a big investment, between 500 and 1,000 million euros according to Bloomberg, to claim one of the 12 fixed spots in the new league. Other four spots will be reserved for outsider clubs who can qualify by winning FIBA's Champions League and FIBA's second tier Eurocup, but not for the teams that remain in Euroleague.
Among those faithful to Euroleague are Madrid's bigger rival, FC Barcelona, which have signed a deal extension with Euroleague running until 2036. It's not irreversible: Euroleague teams have an exit clause of 10 million euros, so if in the future NBA Europe seems more tantalising then Euroleague, they would have to pay 10 million to Euroleague to leave.
ASVEL is another team that is expected to leave Euroleague, and would join FIBA's Champions League next season, hoping to earn a spot in NBA Europe through sporting merits.
It seems that NBA Europe will be mostly made of new franchises created in cities like Paris (they are trying to have PSG build a basketball team), Manchester (although neither Man United nor Man City have shown interest), London, Athens, Istanbul (with Galatasaray maybe joining the league with Fenerbahçe and Efes remaining in Euroleague), as well as Munich, Berlin, Milan, and Lyon.
Do you think the NBA Europe project will succeed?