Euroleague Final Four

Want to go to the Euroleague Final Four this May in Milan?
Plan on spending 265 Euros minimum for a seat at the Mediolanum Forum. Check out this link to see the different ticket packages for this three day event to crown the champion of Euroleague

http://www.ticketone.it/euroleague-final-four-tickets.html?affiliate=PI3&doc=artistPages/tickets&fun=artist&action=tickets&kuid=488488

While the Forum only seats 12,500, I still feel like the tickets are highly overpriced given what the on court talent is. I personally would recommend having the Final Four in a bigger arena, and offering tickets at a discounted price. This would allow all fans, not just wealthy ones to see what the Euroleague is all about. While ticket revenue might be slightly less, I think that the potential for increased fan loyalty and a broader appeal could lead to larger revenues in the long term.

Do you guys think the current ticket prices should stay the same or should they be lowered to attract a wider fan base?

-Lucas Cohen

Money Matters

Looking at this and knowing the average NBA team spends around $100 million each year, how can Euroleague ever reach that level?  And even if they do will they compete for players with the NBA?

Here is a list of how much money Euroleague teams spend each year: http://www.ballineurope.com/european-basketball/budgets-of-basketball-clubs-in-europe/

Also here's the value of all teams in the NBA according to Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/nba-valuations/#page:1_sort:0_direction:asc_search:

-Brad Williams

Analysis of Ownership

NBA and the Euroleague owners make money off of their teams from the sponsors, ticket sales, endorsements, merchandise etc. There are 40 majority owners that make up the 30 teams in the NBA. Several companies are also backing these teams. These owners are interested in a piece of these teams for several reasons. One being that you will make money when or if you sell. Over the last 25 years, there was just one franchise that was sold for less that it was bought. Just to show how much these teams are being sold for, the pistons sold in 2011 to a private equity investor TomGores for an amount reported to be anywhere from $300 million to $425 million despite losing an estimated $20 million to $30 million a year. Owning a team can also help the owners' businesses by gaining exposure especially with the NBA. NBA ownership gets them 8,000-word profiles in The New York times. There is also the potential for owners to make a fiscal profit. Even taking the NBA’s financial numbers at face value, there are eight teams make money for their owners. 

One of the most interesting feature of the Euroleague is that there is no homogeneous structure. You can have one person owning a team, have a company own a team and you can have members owning the club. Contrary to the logic of a commercial league such as the NBA, most of the people putting money into European basketball know they will never see that money back. Of course, Euroleague is meant to be a money-making business but very rarely is it a business that brings money back to the owners. They do it as a marketing resource to promote their product; they do it for political reasons, to have better ties with a political scenario; they do it for personal reasons or for a relationship with the 
local community. Or people do it just because they are crazy fans.

As you can see both the NBA and Euroleague owners have a level of self-interest invested in their team. Do you believe that these owners have interest in the teams that go beyond just a monetary investment?

- Curtis Businski

League Structures

The NBA is essentially its own governing body with a fairly straight forward structure.  The NBA is headed by the Commissioner, Adam Silver who possesses a lot of power in the league.  The teams will draft players to get into the league.  The playoffs for the NBA includes 8 teams from each of the two conferences with the three division winners receiving the 3 highest seeds, and the remaining teams being seeded in order of record.  They play a best of seven series, and the team with the best record will receive home court advantage.

Euroleague is very different from the NBA's structure.  Euroleague is composed of different teams from the different basketball leagues in each country.  Euroleague is separate from the individual countries leagues and is basically a playoff league.  On the other hand the NBA is a completely self contained league with the regular season and playoffs all under the control of the NBA.  Euroleague gives out a certain number of A, B and C licenses and the teams that have a license are allowed to play in Euroleague.  The regular season starts with 24 teams with 6 teams in each of the four divisions.  Each team in each division plays the others twice and then 8 teams are eliminated.  Then there is the top 16, the quarterfinals and the Final Four.  Another major difference is that these games are single elimination while the NBA plays prolonged series.

The NBA seems to have a good system but the playoffs are so prolonged and a lot of the regular season seems meaningless with so many games.  Euroleague has a March Madness like structure but I'm not sure how much I like the single elimination. What do you think is the best format for a league?


-Brad Williams

http://www.euroleague.net/rs/47719/84bd1f8d-134d-42a0-a8ee-cd688d29aaa2/301/filename/2013-2014-el-bylaws.pdf
http://www.euroleague.net/competition/format

History of the NBA & Euroleague

Euroleague:
Originally founded by FIBA in 1958.  Split off from FIBA's wing after the 1999-2000 season and the Euroleague Basketball Company was created.  During the 2001 season there were problems when FIBA created the Suproleague which took competition away from Euroleague.  After the 2001 season the two leagues decided it was best to join together and be one league, so the teams in Suproleague became a part of Euroleague.

Currently Euroleague is in charge of European professional competitions and FIBA is now in control over the national team competitions.  In July of 2010 Turkish Airlines paid Euroleague 15 million euros to officially name the league Turkish Airlines Euroleague.  Euroleague is broadcast in 200 countries with millions of fans worldwide, especially in China.

NBA:
Founded in 1946 in NYC, and originally called the Basketball Association of America (BAA).  The first game ever played was in Toronto Canada and featured the New York Knickerbockers and the Toronto Huskies.  In 1949 the National Basketball League (NBL) and the BAA merged to create the National Basketball Association known to us today.

The American Basketball Association ABA became a threat to the NBA when players began signing with ABA teams.  NBA agreed to do a merger with the ABA acquiring the teams in the league and establishing the NBA as the premier basketball league in the world.  The NBA currently has 30 teams in two conferences, with one team in Canada and the other 29 based in the US.

Comparisons:
Euroleague actually was a split-off from the original FIBA, while the NBA was the result of a merger of different leagues and both are the premier leagues on their respective continents.  Most people view the NBA as a superior league to Euroleague.  How can Euroleague prevent themselves from being viewed as a feeder into the NBA and will the ever be on an equal playing field as the NBA.


-Brad Williams

http://www.euroleague.net/history
http://www.nba.com/history/

A Perfect Partnership

Turkish Airlines love their relationship with the Euroleague, so back in October 2013 they signed an extension through the 2020 season.

The relationship between Euroleague and Turkish Airlines is more than just a simple sponsorship. Since the partnership began in 2010, Euroleague has really took off.  The two companies collaborated and developed social media campaigns/promotions, mass marketed documentaries and live games broadcasts shown in-flight.

In 2012, Turkish Airlines continued to be more than just a sponsor, they became a founding partner of One Team, which is a social responsibly program run by Euroleague, in which uses sports to help disadvantaged communities across the world.

Turkish Airlines also has garnered increased exposure since joining on with Euroleague in 2010.  Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi, two of the most famous athletes in the world, star in a commercial for Turkish Airlines that has 137 million views on YouTube.

Jordi Bertomeu, President and CEO of Euroleague, said, "We are collaborating hand-in-hand to enhance the profile of the Europeans basketball globally and to bring its benefits to the communities that both Turkish Airlines and Euroleague depend on and seek to serve better."

Personally I do not think this partnership could be going any better for either side.  Turkish Airlines is become a world-wide brand as well as the Euroleague extending its reach to more people across the world.

Some Questions to consider:

1-Do you think it is a good idea for the main sponsor of Euroleague to have such an influence in the goings on of the business?

2-Is there a future to innovative collaborations like this in other sports league around the world?


Dr. Chris O'Hanlon
-Avid Sports Blogger and Amateur Magician

Unlike in the Euroleague, in the NBA almost all of the 30 teams have an operating profit, with 25 out of the 30 teams not losing money.  The New York Knicks lead the way with a annual profit of about $96 million.

David Stern, the former NBA commissioner, helped grow the NBA into a world-wide powerhouse in his 30 year tenure with the NBA.  If it weren't for the NBA's growth, Euroleague would not be anywhere close to the level it is at today.

The NBA drives the basketball landscape all over the world, and with the interest in basketball growing so immensely in the United States, it has caused a growth in Europe.

The past NBA season was the most successful in a business standpoint, with an average of $23.7 million operating income across the board.

For a more intensive look into the money making machine that is the NBA, check out this article in Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2014/01/22/as-stern-says-goodbye-knicks-lakers-set-records-as-nbas-most-valuable-teams/

Question: Do you think if the NBA was not as successful as it is, that the Euroleague would be growing at the rate that it is?  Does the NBA have a major impact on the goings on over in Europe and around the basketball world?

Dr. Chris O'Hanlon
-Avid Sports Blogger and Amateur Magician

A Players Perspective

Josh Childress discusses his 5 main differences between the NBA and Euroleague back in 2009

Comparing NBA to Euroleague Salaries

As Euroleague continues to grow in popularity in Europe, player salaries and talent continue to rise at an impressive rate. While the pay scale of Euroleague may never compete with the NBA, take a look at how much top salaries have increased in the past two years. 

During the 2010-2011 season, there were 24 players in Euroleague making over 1 million Euros, with the highest paid player making 3.5 million Euros. Notable players on this list including former NBA players Bostjan Nachbar and Allen Iverson, as well as Spanish standout Juan Carlos Navarro.

During the 2012-2013 Euroleague season, there were over 40 players making over 1.15 million Euros. Notable players on this list included former US college standout Nick Calathes, and former NBA players Jordan Farmer, Rudy Fernandez and Nedad Kristic. 

While the overall salary increases in the past couple of years haven't brought tons of NBA talent to Europe, there is an increasing trend of NBA players spending one year in Europe and going back to the NBA. The 2011 NBA lockout year helped solidify this trend, as 90 NBA players went to Europe during the lockout. The vast majority of these players returned to America with the lockout was over, because Euroleague teams simply could not pay them their market value in salary. However, the Euroleague is increasingly becoming a solid option for fringe level NBA players who can now leverage their bargaining rights in the NBA with competitive Euroleague contract offers. 

When taking a look at NBA salaries for the 2012-2013 season, there were 278 players making over 2 million USD, with dozens of players making over 10 million USD. In the near future Euroleague teams will have no chance at signing top NBA talent, but are increasingly entering the market for basketball players seeking low 7 figure contracts. During the 2012-2013, four teams had budgets over 30 million Euros, while the bottom eight teams had budgets under 10 million Euros. If team payrolls in Euroleague were able to all reach the level of CSKA Moscow 42 million Euros, I bet you would see a lot of top notch American players flock to Euroleague

The reason I decided to focus on salary in this post is because I believe having higher payrolls is the quickest and more surefire way for the Euroleague to generate more interest in the world basketball community. The bottom line is more money to spend equal better players and better players equals more fan interest. It will be interesting to see how the salaries and payrolls of Euroleague teams stack up to their NBA counterparts in 10 years.

Lucas Cohen

-5 time All-Pro Sports Blogger

Surging Interest in Euroleague

The fan base of Euroleague has continued to grow during the 2013-14 regular season. In an article posted by Euroleague.net they said that based off of data collected from 10 regular season games, there was a rise in attendance as well as heavy traffic on the leagues website.

In a total of 120 games throughout the season, attendance was up 5%.

Euroleague consulted with G2 strategic to help launch the Euroleague Basketball Ticketing Program two years ago.  Because of this program and the growth of the sport in Europe, 10 teams reported increased ticket sales.

This past year Euroleague.net brought in more than 100,000 new visitors to their website.  The growth of the game has led to a Greek, Sport24.GR's, and Italian, Gazzetta dello Sport, versions of Euroleague.net

Currently there are 195 countries worldwide broadcasting Euroleague games.  Standard viewership has also risen in large part to moving a one of the game days to Friday fromWednesday to combat when Football(soccer) matches are played in Europe

My Take:

Basketball is growing all throughout the world.  It is now the second most popular sport in the United States, distancing itself from Baseball.  Currently in many countries in Europe it is either the number two sport behind football(soccer) or in some cases like in Eastern Europe it is number one.  

Euroleague is now even featured in the extremely popular video game NBA 2K14 and they play friendlies in the United States occasionally, which shows the growth of the European game.

With the growth of the internet and social media platforms, I think the global awareness of Euroleague will continue to grow because of how easy it is to access information. I do not think, however, that any basketball league/entity can ever come close to threatening the NBA.

The NBA is king, but maybe Euroleague can be his queen...

Dr. Chris O'Hanlon

-Avid Sports Blogger and Amateur Magician 

What if the NBA and Euroleague Merged...?

What if the NBA and Euroleague merged? It sounds really crazy but is it possible? Throughout sports history, every major sports league from beginning of time has merged, just never over two continents. 
It is actually becoming easier for these organizations to merge due to technological advances in transportation and media as well as the organizational rules. 

The Atlantic Ocean will create quite a divide between the areas even though a flight from Boston to London or LA is virtually the same. Can fans get over the transportation divide to make this happen? 

Recently the international game has been changing and adopting more and more to NBA rules including:
1) jump ball to decide possessions
2) courts to be wider and longer
3) three point line is going to be moved to 7.25 m (like the NBA 23' 9").
4) technical foul will give one free throw and the possession
5) “foul bonus” rule established

What is Euroleague's motive in mirroring the rules of the NBA? 

Personally, I do not see this happening anytime soon because of scheduling conflicts and broadcasting times making it nearly impossible for fans to watch their team live with the dramatic time changes. It might be possible to create a Champions League / World Cup, however, could European champions ever compete against the NBA Champion?

- Curtis "Tell em wat ya think boii..." Businski

What if You Don't Make it to the NBA?

Many athletes dream of making it into the NBA and becoming one of the best athletes on the planet. But what happens to all those players who never make it to the NBA?  What happens to those elite players who play in top division college basketball but just aren't good enough to make it to the next level?  The truth is that most of these players basketball careers will end in college, but some will get a second chance...

The NBA draft usually only consists of two rounds, which means that only 60 players will get a chance to play in the league.  Even some of these players will never see playing time on an NBA court and will end up in the D-League or being released.  

However, some players will get a chance to play in the European Leagues.  This allows players to continue on with their playing careers and continue to profit from playing basketball.  Also, it allows players a chance to improve their skills and then a few years down the road enter into the NBA draft.

So the question is, would you give up everything you know, go to a foreign country and virtually begin a new life to chase the dream of making it into the NBA?

Check out this link to see 50 American Collegiate Athletes currently playing in Euroleague: http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2012/11/06/mitnick-top-50-american-players-in-euroleague/

-Bradley Williams

Pro Sports Blogger