Welcome to the Business of Sports newsletter. This week we look at the NBA’s potential international plays, chat with the Orlando Pride owner about this weekend’s massive game and go to Paris where it’s all kicking off. 

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Hi, it’s Jake in Berlin. We just broke the news that the NBA (and some of its teams) are busy deepening their relationship with the Middle East.

The Gulf's draw is clear: states there are throwing money to develop sports and tourism, and basketball is a new game in town. In Europe, the sport has deeper roots, and a lot more supporters. But the mood here is a bit more tense. 

The EuroLeague has some die-hard fans but has never really hit the big time. Global sports marketing agency IMG has been helping manage commercial operations since 2016 but the EuroLeague remains hobbled by competing interests among the 13 teams that own it. Now, with IMG's deal coming to an end next season (although it has an option to extend), rumors are swirling about what the league will look like going forward.

The prospect of keeping its structure intact may hinge on the NBA’s plans for Europe. At this summer’s Paris Olympics, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he held talks with FIBA, basketball’s global governing body, about expanding into Europe either with an annual tournament or an NBA-operated league.

Belgrade players celebrate a win in a EuroLeague game. Photographer: Frederic Dides/AFP/Getty Images

So what happens if some EuroLeague teams decide they’d be better off under the NBA’s umbrella? Some teams are now naturally considering whether or not to withdraw from the EuroLeague in favor of a potential NBA Europe, according to people familiar with the matter.

London-based fund BC Partners has been in talks for an investment of around $300 million to $400 million into EuroLeague. It’s unclear what happens here if teams do decide to join a rival NBA league. Do they stay or go?

The EuroLeague and BC Partners declined to comment.

Europe fits into the NBA’s renewed international push as it seeks to expand its pool of investors to include more money from the Middle East. 

Operating in Europe would require less heavy lifting than the NBA’s African league, where it set up its only professional league outside of the US from scratch in 2021. The NBA has a significant international office in London, and has a tradition of playing regular season games in Paris. The San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers will square off there twice in January.

The league is likely to focus on western Europe, where the infrastructure is better and the markets are bigger. The NBA already has a recognizable brand and a growing number of European stars like Victor Wembanyama to showcase.

Silver can probably count on FIBA to help. There’s enough bad blood between FIBA and EuroLeague to justify a Wikipedia page. The two have been feuding on and off for more than two decades over control of European basketball.

EuroLeague has created an impressive product that’s one of the most popular professional sports associations on the planet. Attendance soared 18% last season to a record of more than 10,000 a game.

But it’s always been an awkward marriage of teams representing very different markets. The most passionate fans are in some of its smallest or least developed countries, like Serbia, Israel and Greece. The league is relatively weak compared to the teams, which creates competition issues.

This year the league announced its first salary cap in an attempt to level the playing field. But if the NBA moves into Europe, it’ll be facing competition issues of another type all together.

• Rolex will be the title sponsor of SailGP, the high-speed yachting race series co-founded by billionaire Larry Ellison, in a long-term deal that comes after the Swiss watchmaking giant was elbowed-out as a headline supporter of Formula One.

• Despite being one of the most popular women’s sports for decades, pro volleyball leagues in the US have struggled to get off the ground. Now a group of private equity firms have invested  that’s debuting a US professional league in January.

• In a sign of how much pro sports franchises are catering to wealthy fans, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is spending $20 million to open a private club at the NBA team’s arena with a $15,000 annual membership fee.

• Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is getting into venture capital, and one of his first investments is in women’s basketball.

Hi, it’s Vanessa. I’m in Kansas City to watch the Washington Spirit take on the Orlando Pride in the NWSL Championship.

It’s a battle of the top two seeds. I know we all like an underdog story now and again. But sometimes you just want to watch the best have it out. 

Last week, I looked at the spending habits of the semifinalists. The Orlando Pride are backed by Mark Wilf, whose family has owned the Minnesota Vikings for 20 years. His sports empire also includes the Orlando City Soccer Club of Major League Soccer.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Wilf talked about booming valuations, how he’s leveraging his NFL experience in soccer and the future.

Mark Wilf has big plans for his two soccer clubs. Photographer: Adam Bettcher/Getty Images

What experience have you taken from being an owner in the NFL to soccer?

We always look for crossover opportunities. We do have a lot of shared thought leadership. We have an executive board where we have many people that have worked with the Vikings for many years that are on our Orlando board.

We have our training staff come to Minnesota to learn some of the best practices. And we share about different technologies, marketing promotions and what works and doesn’t in game presentations.

You came into the NWSL in 2021. Valuations have surged about 60 times since then. Did you think you came into the league at just the right moment?

I do. We always knew when we purchased both clubs in 2021, the Pride acquisition was something we were super excited about. The fact that we’ve been in the sports business for 20 seasons has been helpful.

I think you’re seeing that across the NWSL. A lot of new ownership groups that are very strong have a lot of sports experience, a lot of ability to think long term with deep pockets, with a long term horizon.

I’m really bullish on our ownership groups. We’re well positioned to continue to build, to continue to invest, to continue to have an upward trajectory.

This year you shelled out nearly $750,000 in a transfer fee to acquire Barbra Banda from Shanghai Shengli FC and then signed her to one of the most expensive contracts in the league. Outside of player contracts, where else are you investing? 

Number one for us in ownership is we want to provide the resources to maximize our competitiveness, to win championships and shields and all the rest. Our chief business officer and our staff have done a really great job. We added sponsors like Publix and United Way of Central Florida. They’re great supporters of ours. We’ve increased our partnerships by 150% with 22 new brand alliance partners across our clubs. We’ve had over 100,000 fans come to our games, which is almost doubled from a year and a half ago.

We have to continue to invest but there’s a lot of good things going on.

Hi, it’s Benoit. Paris has had one elite football club since 1990. London, Madrid or Rome have numerous big clubs, as befits their population. 

What makes the Parisian footballing monoculture even more surprising is the city and its suburbs is the biggest provider of young players for the top European clubs.

At last, there might be some competition. This week, the scion of LVMH luxury empire, Antoine Arnault, unveiled his plan to have second-tier club Paris FC rival Qatar-backed Paris Saint-Germain. 

A general view during the campus inauguration at Campus PSG in Paris, on Nov. 21. Photographer: Aurelien Meunier/PSG/Getty Images

The 47 year-old took a humble approach, maybe too humble, saying he would continue to admire and support PSG, something the Paris FC supporters might not have liked. “Can you imagine the chairman of Tottenham saying he loves Arsenal?” a TV commentator said. 

His father Bernard Arnault is the fifth-richest man in the world, so that helps. They plan to initially spend upwards of €100 million ($104 million). It will rely on its partner Red Bull to build a team and expand the in-house training academy rather than hire too many stars, an approach that Red Bull took successfully with the RB Leipzig in Germany. The younger Arnault said he would love to have seven to eight homegrown players on the team ultimately, which is an ambitious target.

Still, the club’s training ground south of Paris — just four pitches next to Orly airport and a cemetery — looks very modest compared to what the Qatar-supported PSG has been building on the other side of the city. 

This Thursday, PSG inaugurated its brand new “training campus,” where its players kicked orange balls under pouring snow. The camp spans across 146 acres and cost €300 million ($312 million) to build. It has 16 football pitches with under soil heating, two balneotherapy spaces, classrooms for the 140 boys and girls studying there and an organic garden to feed the players. 

Some PSG executives couldn’t help but notice that Paris FC used wording familiar to them, like the Paris talent pool of players being only rivaled by São Paulo. It wasn’t lost on them that former PSG star Raí is advising Paris FC, and that a former PSG chairman will join its board. 

“I find any investment in football fascinating,” PSG’s coach Luis Enrique told Bloomberg at a press conference. “And if it is in Paris, and we have one less trip and a rival nearby, everything that is to promote the sport and encourage this type of investment seems perfect to me,” he added.

There is still a long road ahead for the hypothetical new rivalry to revive the interest of fans and save the finances of French football. 

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