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The NBA’s push into Europe could be a catalyst for the next stage of basketball’s growth on the continent, including modernized arenas and improved broadcasting, Oak View Group CEO Chris Granger told Front Office Sports during the 15th annual University of Michigan Sport Business Conference.
The NBA and FIBA are working together on the planned European endeavor, with aims to launch the league in October of next year. The NBA says it wants to collaborate with EuroLeague, but the latter recently rejected the former’s initial proposal as woefully inadequate. EuroLeague is instead attempting to chart its own path toward expansion, setting an ambitious 10-year growth plan that aims to nearly sextuple its value to $8.98 billion (€7.98 billion).
Granger, who spoke with FOS last week during a panel at the University of Michigan, runs Oak View Group, which owns and operates arenas across the world. The company’s U.S. venues include Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle where the Kraken play and UBS Arena where the Islanders play.
His company may end up being involved in NBA Europe; one of its venues is Co-op Live, a joint venture with City Football Group that opened in the U.K. in 2024 and has been linked to a potential NBA Europe franchise.
“The energy around European basketball is undeniable right now,” Granger said. He noted that energy could be tied to the upcoming NBA Europe project, EuroLeague’s big ambitions, or both.
“I think everyone agrees that there is opportunity when it comes to European basketball,” he said.
Granger has lots of experience in the world of pro sports, including a four-year stint as president of the NBA’s Kings and a more than four-and-a-half-year run as group president of sports and entertainment at Ilitch Holdings, which owns the NHL’s Red Wings and MLB’s Tigers.
According to Granger, the opportunities in European basketball extend beyond what will happen on the court, including modernized arenas. “In any of these global capital markets, they don’t have so-called NBA-style buildings in the way we would think about it, the way we would monetize it, the way we would create top, high-end fan experiences,” he said. “It just doesn’t exist there. It’s an older building infrastructure, they’re smaller.”
He also said there’s opportunity for enhanced broadcasting, and noted that regardless of what happens between the NBA and EuroLeague, there is momentum to “accelerate a professionalization of basketball in Europe.”
He is, however, aware of the fear from some in Europe about the NBA trying to Americanize the sport. Responding to a student’s question about that , Granger acknowledged that attending pro basketball games in cities like Istanbul or Athens is “completely different than the U.S.”
“You want to maintain that sense of tribalism, that sense of community in the venue,” he said, adding that the presentation of live NBA games in the U.S. can sometimes be “overprogramed.”
“I think you need to let it breathe a little more there,” he said.
But from his view, the NBA is not planning to come in and completely Americanize the way basketball is played in Europe. He noted there has been discussion about promotion and relegation that would “create some sense of meritocracy” that is important in European sports.
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