Noone cares about Mexico or South America? That's more feasible for Southwestern/southern teams than freakin' Europe is.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dre)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Noone cares about Mexico or South America? That's more feasible for Southwestern/southern teams than freakin' Europe is.</p> </div></p> </p> Im not sure a team in Mexico would fly yet. As for South America, I think that is a possibility, but clearly Stern has been turning his attention towards Europe because of their constant support of basketball and the NBA, not to mention all the training camps the NBA does over there and merchandise sales.</p>
Stern's actually mentioned the possibility of a team in Mexico City, simply b/c its the closest huge metro area to the US. And he's talked about expanding to China almost as much as expanding to Europe.</p> But the simple fact is that its highly unlikely even ONE team will be established that competes in the NBA from a base over seas, or even outside of America. Logistics is one reason, language is another, but there are tons more reasons. Its far more likely that we're going to see a couple of expansion teams rolled out in places like Vegas and Oklahoma City before we see teams in London or Madrid. I don't care how cheap international travel gets, or how fast the planes are, the NBA isn't going to ship teams halfway around the globe just to play games.</p> The likeliest scenario we're going to see are affiliate leagues being started by the NBA that have the same status of the D-league, with feeder possibilities to NBA clubs. It would becomparable to NFL Europe. In that case, there could be a Chinese NBA circuit, with teams in the biggest 7 or 8 cities. And there could be a European circuit, with teams in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Athens, Istanbul, etc. And they'd play just within their circuit, and maybe have part of their schedule consisting of games against local clubs. But they're not going to be playing domestic NBA teams, not this decade or any other.</p>
The NBA can't have a franchise team in Europe, because it's not even possible NBA D-League type franchises in Europe would flop, not to mention European teams/leagues would not want to compete with them.</p> To me, none of this makes any sense.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BrewCityBuck)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> The NBA can't have a franchise team in Europe, because it's not even possible NBA D-League type franchises in Europe would flop, not to mention European teams/leagues would not want to compete with them.</p> To me, none of this makes any sense.</p> </div></p> I think it can happen, but would likely have to be affiliated with both the NBA and Euro-league. Stern has wanted something like this for a long time, feasable or not, he would do it if the opportunity presents itself.</p>
There are pretty big fanbases in the major cities in Europe. I would love this to happen, but I just doubt that it ever will, given the size of the task. However, the fact that Las Vegas, a city with no NBA team, held the All-Star game last season, I see no reason why they couldn't hold the All-Star game in Europe from time to time. That would work well, as people would flock from all over Europe to see it, and it would be a single weekend, rather than a long trip for players.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TucsonClip)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Well I can tell you that if the owners approve of a european franchise, they will not roll out 8 at one time. There will be 1 euro franchise, more than likely packed into the Atlantic divison. If all goes well the possibility for more euro franchises will increase, but not 8 or even 4 new franchises expanding at one time, thatwould be a disaster.</p> </div></p> </p> A high risk is already there for one team to enter. It would be a complete disaster from the start for one team to have such a burden of travelling that much to the United States and Canada. The only way that would work for them is if they take long home and away stretches of up to 20 games. The other franchises would complain over that.</p> </p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dre)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Noone cares about Mexico or South America? That's more feasible for Southwestern/southern teams than freakin' Europe is.</p> </div></p> </p> South America? Just where in South America as you know it takes as long if not longer to get to certain places like Brazil and Argentina. A flight to Buenos Aires takes 11 hours where as a flight to Germany or France will take 8-8.5.</p>
