# Euroleague CEO Bertomeu on NBA-Euro Expansion



## luther (Nov 2, 2007)

The below is taken from SI.com (link also below). It is an Ian Thomsen story featuring material taken from an interview with Jordi Bertomeu, CEO of Euroleague, about some possible obstacles to NBA expansion into Europe. Nothing totally groundbreaking, but it's an interesting read, especially with its notes on practical issues such as different laws from country to country, problems selling tickets and ownership's motivations.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/ian_thomsen/02/22/weekly.countdown/1.html



> During All-Star weekend in New Orleans I met with Jordi Bertomeu, the Spaniard who is CEO of the Euroleague. In the past decade, he has emerged as one of the most progressive leaders in basketball internationally, persuading the owners of the Euroleague clubs to aggressively seize responsibility for the league's marketing interests -- a novel concept in Europe. Now he is pushing his clubs to build new arenas that average 10,000 seats or more in hopes of developing ticket revenues, a previously neglected aspect of the business in European basketball.
> 
> Bertomeu has been trying to get the top clubs in Europe to view basketball as a business as well as a means of regional competition, the latter being the traditional Old World view. As such, he provides excellent perspective on the challenges commissioner David Stern would face in moving forward with plans to expand the NBA with five new franchises in Europe over the next decade.
> 
> ...


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## SheriffKilla (Jan 1, 2004)

thats very interesting
good luck to them and hopefully they will be able to make some money without ruining their league with the money aspect of it


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## Krstic All-Star (Mar 9, 2005)

> "Our culture is not based in personalities [of individual players] but in the clubs,'' Bertomeu said. "People are crazy about Panathinaikos or Barcelona no matter who are the players. What we have is something more collective, rather than a culture of individuality. In Europe, the brand is not the player; the brand is the club.''


Turning it the other way, it would be great if some of that rubbed off on NBA players, both here and in Europe.


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## HB (May 1, 2004)

That was a very good. I love the enthusiasm he talked about from owners to the game and the community


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