NBA Europe managing director George Aivazoglou disclosed details of the upcoming league at a conference in Milan Friday. Noushad Thekkayil / NurPhoto via Getty Images

The NBA is targeting an October 2027 launch date for its new European League, and its list of preferred team cities in the new venture includes London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and Istanbul.

Speaking at a Football Business Forum in Milan on Friday, George Aivazoglou, managing director for the NBA’s European and Middle East offices, cited those cities as well as Manchester (U.K.) and Lyon (France) as targeted locations for permanent members of commissioner Adam Silver’s league. Aivazoglou said the league is heading toward a tip off in about 23 months, though October 2027 is not yet finalized.

Aivazoglou also said the new league — it’s yet to be determined if it will be called NBA Europe — would be a 16-team league with the last four teams qualifying through a play-in, either through FIBA’s Champions League or a domestic league.

And finally, Aivazoglou suggested the NBA’s European teams would likely play against the NBA in a tournament.

“It would be a new competition bringing together NBA and NBA Europe teams — down the line, an NBA Cup format with American and European teams, or a tournament like last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup — as part of an increasingly integrated framework,” Aivazoglou said at the conference, according to the audio of his remarks obtained by The Athletic.

Though there were no confirmations yet on who will own the teams, existing European basketball powerhouses — or otherwise established programs — in Madrid (Real Madrid), Barcelona (Barca), Berlin (Alba), Munich (Bayern) and Lyon (ASVEL Basket, where former San Antonio superstar Tony Parker is team president) are all expected to transfer from the EuroLeague to the NBA’s league, two European basketball sources said.

In Paris, a EuroLeague team exists, run by former NBA team executive David Kahn, but the NBA is seeking partnership with Qatari authorities that own soccer giant Paris Saint-Germain, according to a source close to PSG. Paris Basket plays in the French national league and the EuroLeague, and has home games at both of the city’s large basketball arenas.

The NBA has a similar decision to make in Milan, where a basketball team exists but so does not one, but two deep-pocketed soccer clubs that could be interested in starting a basketball program for Silver’s venture.

“We will have teams in three categories,” Aivazoglou said. “First, we’re talking with some existing basketball teams. Second, we’re talking with football teams that have a strong brand, and therefore a large fan base, but don’t have a basketball team: many of the most interesting conversations we’re having in this country and in this city are of this nature. And there are situations, in very limited cases, where we’ll start from scratch.”

In the United Kingdom, Manchester City’s multi-billion-dollar soccer franchise is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan through the Abu Dhabi United Group out of the United Arab Emirates. The chairman of Manchester City is another Emirate, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, whose brother, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, runs the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism.

The Al Mubarak family has expressed interest in NBA ownership, though sovereign wealth funds currently cannot own more than 20 percent of any NBA franchise. The London Lions nearly folded in 2024 but the franchise was rescued by Lithuanian tech company Tessonet.

A new basketball league in Europe would face immediate competition from the EuroLeague, widely considered to be the second-best basketball competition in the world after the NBA. The NBA tried to partner with the EuroLeague in the past but the EuroLeague rejected those advances, according to multiple NBA and EuroLeague sources briefed on the conversations.The EuroLeague is now in a state of uncertainty as European basketball executives wonder how the NBA would impact its future.

GO DEEPERWhere the NBA stands on expanding its footprint in Europe

FIBA and the existing EuroLeague have clashed for years over issues ranging from scheduling of national team events during EuroLeague seasons, to how the continental league is run. Silver, meanwhile, has long been interested in European soccer and has cited an untapped marketing potential for basketball on the continent. While the economics of European basketball are not considered to be strong, and the NBA could enter a potentially fragmented marketplace, Silver has been bullish about its chances.

This story will be updated.

Nov 7, 2025

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Joe Vardon is a senior NBA writer for The Athletic, based in Cleveland. Follow Joe on Twitter @joevardon