Euroleague reportedly seeking £100m investment for London franchise - Hoopsfix.com

Euroleague reportedly seeking £100m investment for London franchise

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The EuroLeague are actively seeking investment of at least £100million over a minimum five-year period for a London-based franchise, SportsPro is reporting.

Europe’s elite club basketball competition have been clear about their desires for representation in England’s capital city over the years, and are not setting a timeline for the franchise, which they envision competing in Euroleague competition only and not the domestic BBL.

“A project like this isn’t something that you can build overnight and, in the UK, you also need to consider the fact that we will also have to build a fanbase and the product,” Roser Queraltó, EuroLeague Basketball’s chief business development officer, told SportsPro.

“In that particular territory, you also need the players for the team to be competitive; there is so much on offer [to fans] in London, it would be difficult not to have the best of the best. An underperforming team would be deemed a failure for the EuroLeague.

“This is why we’re not going to rush this decision. This is a very key and strategic decision for the EuroLeague, so we are only going to launch this when it’s appropriate and with whomever we truly believe is the right partner to open a franchise in the UK.”

The franchise would need at least £20million per season to work, based on the average budget for a EuroLeague team being around £21.5million per year.

SportsPro reports the Euroleague has received promising interest from potential investors, including “an unnamed fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company”, however, coronavirus has no doubt impacted investors confidence in the opportunity with global sport being drastically impacted and budgets being slashed across the world.

The UK has not had a team in the EuroLeague since the now-defunct London Towers played in the early years of the competition in 2001.

Read the full article over at SportsPro.

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