12 SportBusiness International • No. 154 • 03.10

For thoSe who have followed the on and off fortunes of British basketball over the last 25 years, the push to launch a new professional UK league in November 2011 may well be greeted with some scepticism.

After all, images of drafty sports halls, echoing with a softcore of fans cheering on the Jets, Heat and Thunder from the likes of Chester, Guildford and Worthing are hard to dismiss.

There is also the fact that those representing the proposed new league have been waiting in the wings since 2007, a sign perhaps that basketball has trouble convincing serious investors of its role in the UK sports market.

But the man charged with getting this mini-NBA off the ground in the UK is confident he has the right formula.

British Basketball Association (BBA) CEO Ron Scott, a veteran of Wall Street, is looking for eight teams from eight major cities, each with an annual budget of $2.5 million to $3.5 million, to commit to the new league for next season.

He intends to go head-to-head with the long-established British Basketball League, converting it, he says, into a type of

“development league” and he aims to do it with

American expertise and investment. The US connection runs throughout the project.

The league’s strategy of an owner/partner model, which will provide central funding to partner clubs, was reportedly chosen in consultation with co-founder and BBA director Ed Tapscott, the former CEO of the Charlotte Bobcats NBA franchise.

Scott himself is based in New York, but claims that the ownership model that the BBA has set up is tailored to the needs of the UK market. “In terms of the ownership model, we have looked at what’s working and what wouldn’t work,” Scott tells SportBusiness International.

“We are not the Indian Premier League - cricket in India is very different from basketball in UK - so we could not simply sell off the franchise rights. For us, the danger point comes if there is no central control. For this reason, we have chosen an ownership/partner model. Investors in the BBA will own and fund all the teams in partnership with the local venue owners.

“The central model provides the stability, and once we’ve established the league after around five years, we would consider selling them [individual franchises] to private investors.

Under this model, anyone who wants to invest in the sport now has the opportunity to get involved without going in ‘naked’.”

The fund-raising kicks off in March with an initial target of $25million, which, Scott suggests, is likely to come primarily from US investors even though UK football’s financial Mr Fix it, Keith Harris [chairman of investment bank Seymour Pierce], has come on board as a financial advisor.

Harris’ involvement was highlighted by the UK’s Financial Times newspaper when the league launched its concept last year, but Scott rebuts the obvious conclusions.

“[Harris] is the king of football finance and the Financial Times said we would approach football clubs, but I don’t think that accurately portrays what we are doing,” he explains.

“We have selected Seymour Pierce as our finance partners, but US investors are our cornerstone. This has to be a joint UK/US initiative and you need guys who have built successful businesses, launched leagues and built franchises.”

Scott, moreover, is content to have the support of the NBA on the project. “We’ve been talking constantly to the NBA for the last few years,” he says. “We didn’t go to them with our hands out looking for things, but they want basketball to succeed in the UK just as much as we do. They support us just as they’d support anyone trying to build a successful basketball organisation.”

The NBA’s David Stern himself mentioned the BBA more than once during his NBA Europe Live press conference at London’s O2 in September last year.

But this doesn’t mean that the NBA will have a stake in the league or ask to brand the league as an NBA UK. “We have a robust relationship with the NBA,” adds Scott. “Their view is that there is a great opportunity in the UK and we continue to enjoy an open relationship with them. They’ve given us valuable suggestions and large amounts expertise, but that’s the extent of the involvement.”

Scott, however, does have he support of a number of ex-NBA executives and has learnt from the successful US model that teams have to be located in the major urban markets for the league to pay.“You have to have teams in major population centres,” Scott explains.

“Getting the right venues is also a priority - you can’t have a professional league playing in facilities with a capacity of 1,200. But, you have to start with something practical. You can’t just start with the O2, because you’re not going to fill it.

“But something like Birmingham’s NIA or the Sheffield Arena would be ideal…(and) what we will offer is value for money. It’ll cost around £10

agenda

UK BaSKetBaLL readY For taKe-oFF

fact of the month:

CyCliNg ClassiCs seasoN kiCks off with MilaNo - saN ReMo

The Cycling Classics season begins on Saturday, 20 March with the 101st edition of Milano - San Remo. Last year’s 100th edition of the race was won by Mark CAVENDISH (GBR).

Three of the other Cycling Classics have held more editions than Milano - San Remo with Paris - Roubaix topping the list with its 108th race this year.

Us and Uk investors are poised to make a vibrant British basketball league a reality, reports Matthew glendinning.

Most editions held per Cycling Classic

# 2010 edition Race first edition winner first race

108 Paris - Roubaix 1896 Josef Fischer (GER)

106 Paris - Tours 1896 Eugène Prévost (FRA)

104 Giro di Lombardia 1905 Giovanni Gerbi (ITA)

101 Milano - San Remo 1907 Lucien Petit-Breton (FRA)

98 Scheldeprijs 1907 Maurice Leturgie (FRA)

96 Liège - Bastogne - Liège 1892 Léon Houa (BEL)

94 Ronde van Vlaanderen 1913 Paul Deman (BEL)

93* Meisterschaft von Zürich 1910 Paul Suter (SUI)

90 Paris - Bruxelles 1893 André Henry (BEL)

85* Bordeaux - Paris 1891 George Mills (GBR)

* Note: Meisterschaft von Zürich and Bordeaux - Paris are not held anymore.

or £12 to go to a BBA game. How much do you have to pay to go see Chelsea play?”

With the Olympics coming to London in 2012 and Great Britain developing a competitive team, basketball’s potential in the UK has not exactly been a secret for some time. So why has the BBA waited three years to get the project off the ground. “What happened? There was a credit crunch,” says Scott. “But remember, this is the first time we’ve actually gone out to market. Right now, it’s the cold investor push, and we have confidence in raising the finance.

“Everyone in global basketball, not just us, is looking at London 2012 and UK basketball and collectively we’ll crack it. We believe the whole game in the UK will fall in to line if there is something to aspire to.”

FEBRUARy 2010, SYraCUSe

at the aMerICan UnIverSItY I teach at, Syracuse University (SU), sport is big business … particularly the business of college basketball where the Orangemen (the school’s nickname) are ranked second or third in the US by various media polls.

For Europeans, Africans, Australians and people from the Middle East or Far East, this collegiate distinction might not sound like much.

But as many SportBusiness International readers know, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the US governing body for men’s and women’s university athletics is a massive and supremely monetised machine.

No greater proof of that may exist than here in Syracuse, a gritty snow-covered city of 150,000. That’s because on Saturday night, February 27, SU filled its venerable Carrier Dome, placing nearly 35,000 in one building for an ESPN-televised game involving Big East conference rival Villanova. This regular-season contest, sold out for weeks in advance, immediately set the NCAA record for basketball attendance for an “on-campus” game and student fervor for the #2 Orange proceeded to dominate broadcast, website and digital platforms around the US.

Unsurprisingly, the concept of media saturation is critical to any American sports property and the NCAA is particularly adept at leveraging media, fan and alumni interest in NCAA sports.

In fact, as this story goes to press, the NCAA is debating a decision to expand the season-ending collegiate basketball tournament - known to sponsors and fans as March Madness

- from 65 to 96 US universities. This event, which culminates with

the historic NCAA Final Four weekend, rivals the Super Bowl, baseball’s

World Series or the NBA Finals in fan avidity and economic value to the host city.

The NCAA is also thinking about terminating its contract with long-time partner CBS early (it has an 11-year US$6-billion contract until 2013) in order to snare a bigger and more lucrative deal (spread over 14 years) with parties like ESPN, Fox or Comcast/NBC.

The decision must be made by August 31, 2010 if the NCAA is to opt out of the existing contract.

Mixed into this complex process is the challenge the NCAA faces in replacing its recently departed president due to the death of Miles

Brand in September. Brand had served in his position for

six years and had been attempting to address the financial dynamics of collegiate sports where a college gridiron coach like

the University of Texas’ Mack Brown

could be paid $5-million to supervise approximately

13 football games per year. Interestingly, the University of Texas, a public education institution, has increased Brown’s salary more by than 500 per cent since he signed his first deal for $750,000 in 1997. Since then, the Longhorns (the Texas school nickname) have reportedly restructured Brown’s contract six times giving him raises in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2009.

When the coach earns far more than the president of the university and the governor of the state combined, it leads to a common water-cooler (or tea room) discussion of whether collegiate sports in America is simply a disguised version of professional sports. It is, of course.

Rick Burton is the David B. falk Professor of sport Management at syracuse University and the former chief marketing officer of the Us olympic Committee.

Us College sPoRt is BeCoMiNg BiggeR aND BiggeR BUsiNess aND, iNCReasiNgly, a DisgUiseD veRsioN of PRofessioNal sPoRt.

commUnIQUe

Nick George of Great Britain at the O2 Arena - Getty Images Sport

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