NBA to Name European Expansion Team Winners Within 90 Days
Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum tells CNBC the league will reveal winning bidders for 12 permanent European franchises within 60 to 90 days.
The NBA is set to accelerate its most ambitious international expansion in league history, with Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum announcing the league will begin revealing winning bidders for 12 permanent European teams within the next 60 to 90 days, he told CNBC.
The timeline marks a concrete step forward in the NBA's long-discussed push to establish a transatlantic footprint. By naming successful bidders in the coming months, the league signals that years of exploratory talks are giving way to organizational reality — a move that could fundamentally reshape professional basketball's global structure.
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The scale of the planned expansion is striking: 12 franchises would represent a substantial new tier of NBA-affiliated competition across Europe, a continent with deep basketball traditions and growing fan bases in markets ranging from London to Paris to Madrid. The selection of winning bids will likely draw intense scrutiny from investors, arena operators, and broadcasters eager to secure a stake in the venture.
While Tatum's announcement confirms the process is advancing on a firm schedule, key details — including which cities are in contention, ownership group compositions, and how a European league would interact with the existing 30-team NBA structure — remain to be publicly disclosed. Analysts will be watching closely to see whether the winning bids reflect established sports ownership or a new generation of international investors.
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