NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has set his sights on four European franchises.
In a report by The Guardian, Silver shared that the NBA has lagged behind American football in expanding in Europe and said that the ultimate goal for the NBA is to launch for franchises in the continent. The NFL has increased its regular season games at Wembley Stadium to three and is aiming to have a full franchise in London in 2021. The NBA is currently preparing for its fifth regular season game in London on January 15, 2015, featuring the Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks.
Despite the dismal performance of the Knicks in recent games, tickets in Europe actually sold out quickly, giving Silver the idea that basketball is being warmly received by European fans.
He said in the same report by The Guardian, "My sense is that the NFL is a little bit ahead of us in terms of their timeline for having a franchise based in London. There are some aspects of their schedule that make it easier - they play once a week, they have fewer games."
He added, "It will be easier logistically for them to pull it off. It would be difficult for us to have one team in Europe. We'd have to put both feet down. That would mean having four franchises in Europe."
"We're not there yet. I know that as much growth as we've seen, we have a long way to go before we can sustain four franchises in Europe," said Silver, who has worked at the NBA since 1992. "On the other hand, I believe it's our manifest destiny to expand."
Silver continued, "We are reaching new audiences. Each time we come, we learn from prior experiences and mistakes we've made. When we play here, I think there is an audience that might not normally watch simply because the match is here," said Silver. "Then there's a viral component, word of mouth. The NBA is very much a creature of social media. That's a large part of our growth."
Yahoo Sports reported that David Stern, Silver's predecessor, also had the same vision during his tenure, previously predicting that there will be several international NBA teams, particularly in Europe in the next two decades. Silver admitted that it would require four European franchises to make the expansion feasible. There are issues to tackle in such a feat, however, such as high team purchase prices, frequent traveling for NBA players and scheduling of games. Tom Ziller of SB Nation wrote that expanding in other areas in North America might be more feasible in terms of logistics.
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