The NBA is now prioritising focus on two high-growth areas; Europe and local US markets, which has seen dozens of staff laid off and new hires expected.
The NBA is undergoing a reorganisation of its workforce by prioritising high-growth areas which has seen dozens of employees laid off.
The decision was made to reallocate resources into growth areas, such as the new NBA Europe league expected to launch in October 2027, as well as the potential to secure local broadcast rights deals with broadcasters.
Employees were laid off yesterday (1 July), which follows a continuation from the layoffs that occurred last year.
The Sports Business Journal obtained an internal memo from Commissioner, Adam Silver, to those informed of being laid off, revealing the league would also be looking to hire employees in specific strategic areas.
NBA Europe is now a league priority
The NBA has for the last two years been working on bringing a European basketball league to life by working with financial institutions and prospective bidders to outline the structure of the league.
NBA Europe is being proposed as a 16-team round-robin league, with 12 permanent spots and four spots to be determined via promotion and relegation. The league will also include a play-offs and Finals.
European cities that have been earmarked for consideration for a Europe franchise include London, Berlin, Paris, Milan, Manchester, Athens, Istanbul, Rome and Munich.
A source close to the matter told Insider Sport in May the NBA received several bids that ranged from $500m to $1bn, as well as several bids over $1bn, for 12 of the targeted European city markets.
The deadline for official bids for Europe franchises closed on 30 June.
Mark Tatum, Deputy Commissioner of the NBA, said: “We’re extremely encouraged by the final bids we received for permanent franchises in a new NBA and FIBA-backed league in Europe, which reflect the tremendous interest and momentum around this project.
“This will be the biggest influx of capital European basketball has ever seen, and we have clear frontrunners in each of our 12 target cities including many existing basketball and football clubs. We will now work with the NBA and FIBA Boards to finalise the long-form agreements.”
While no North American-based employees have been relocated to Europe, the league is anticipating to hire employees in the high-growth areas of strategic focus as previously mentioned.
The association will likely have to hire several new employees and/or promote or relocate current employees as part of NBA Europe operations, which would possibly include a new Europe Commissioner.
The local broadcast market shake-up
Securing local broadcast deals has also been identified by the league as another area of growth after the hiring of Matt Volk, a regional sports network (RSN) executive, who was hired as the Head of Local Media.
Following the collapse of several RSN markets after the folding of Main Street Sports Group, which left 13 NBA teams without a local broadcaster, the association is planning a direct-to-consumer streaming service as a solution.
Local over-the-air (OTA) US channels have also been considered by the league in order to maintain reach. The Portland Trail Blazers and New Orleans Pelicans are two NBA teams that have dropped RSN’s in favour of OTA channels.
After the NBA signed a record $76bn media rights deal last year, the league is reportedly seeing value in its local broadcast rights from the likes of Amazon, DAZN and ESPN.
Alternatively, the league could also follow the NFL’s path of hosting all out-of-market and local games on a digital platform such as YouTube with the NFL earning up to $2bn annually from the NFL Sunday Ticket deal.
