Over the past few years NBA commissioner David Stern has repeatedly stated that the NBA plans on launching a European NBA division within the next decade. However, talks have never made it past pointing out general requirements for such an endeavor as well as current short comings of European basketball.

Yesterday, Stern announced that the NBA plans on realizing at least one regular season game on European soil before the 2012 Olympics in London. Although it appears to be a safe bet that said NBA game will simply have two North American teams facing each other in a European venue, many people view it as an important first step. Nonetheless, there is still an overwhelming amount of problems that would have to be solved before the NBA could expand to Europe.

Firstly, Europe lacks venues that live up to NBA standards and could yield profits in the long run. As of now, only London and Berlin feature basketball arenas that can accommodate more than 10 000 fans and thus accumulate the much needed revenue to pay NBA salaries. Unfortunately, basketball is not a particularly popular sport in Germany and the United Kingdom. While the NBA would need at least five European franchises to make their plans work, there is not an awful lot of options out there. Even though Spain and Greece can be considered to be viable options, there are very few other European countries providing the necessary economic climate and interest in basketball. Thus, it may come down to choosing between Eastern European countries without the necessary monetary revenue opportunities or Western European cities which do not feature any sizeable fan base. There is no doubt that European basketball arenas would be sold out if the audience gets to watch Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, but selling enough season tickets for all 41 home games is a different matter.

On the other hand, a European NBA division would inevitably lead to scheduling problems and complaints due to the increasing amount of traveling involved. While flying from the east coast to Europe is roughly the same distance as traveling from Los Angeles to New York, one also has to take into consideration time zone issues. In fact, players may be forced to head to road games with ten hours time difference causing serious jetlag problems during the busy NBA schedule.

Ultimately, it still appears to be a questionable goal to establish a NBA division in Europe. Most of the aforementioned issues may be dealt with to some extent, but some basic problems will most likely remain unsolved. However, according to NBA commissioner Stern, there is also the possibility of an independent European NBA development league that could serve as backup plan.

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