No April Fools’ joke: Will BVB soon play in the NBA? | OneFootball

At BVB, handball is already played at a higher level than football, as is table tennis. Will basketball soon be added, as has been the case at FC Bayern Munich for some time? Plans by the NBA for a European offshoot are making this increasingly likely, according to some sources familiar with the initiation of this expansion.

The NBA wants to establish its own league in Europe. Only a few teams per country are expected to participate, with two spots likely reserved for clubs from Germany. Hot candidates for these are said to be Alba Berlin and, of course, FC Bayern Munich. However, (football) clubs that have not previously operated basketball teams are also being discussed. There are additional interested parties in Germany, according to Ingo Weiss in an interview with Basketball World, who is both President of the German Basketball Federation (DBB) and Treasurer at FIBA, the world governing body of basketball. The NBA’s expansion is therefore expected to take place in cooperation with FIBA.

“There are two or three German locations with large arenas that are in talks. Cologne, Borussia Dortmund, maybe others.” The respective clubs have certainly noticed that a new basketball market is emerging in Germany, which could become lucrative in the future, even if they have not been active in this sport so far. The aforementioned locations apparently do not want to miss out on this opportunity and instead want to become part of this market themselves.

Photo by Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images

Soon BVB Basketball in the Westfalenhalle?

There would be space in Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle, conveniently located within sight of Signal Iduna Park, for up to 15,000 spectators, should an NBA offshoot with a BVB team be established in the near future.

However, standing in the way is an “entry fee” that is expected to be charged for participation in the European NBA. This is said to be in the range of several hundred million euros, making it an investment that would need to be carefully considered. So far, the Ruhr region is not known as a basketball stronghold, and whether enough new target groups could be reached would still need to be determined. However, interested investors could help raise this hefty sum. This, in turn, would certainly lead to heated debates among the members of Borussia Dortmund.

In this European NBA, BVB would definitely find itself among illustrious competition. Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Galatasaray Istanbul, and Manchester United are already said to be among the candidates with whom the NBA will or is already holding talks. How the topic of Borussia Dortmund and basketball will develop remains to be seen—and is certainly exciting.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.