The global stars lighting up the NBA

One thing to start: Global asset manager Investcorp is out of the running to purchase AC Milan after talks with current owners, the hedge fund Elliott Management, collapsed. That leaves US-based RedBird Capital Partners in pole position to acquire the current leaders of Italy’s Serie A. 

In other football sale news, this was another week of twists and turns in the saga of Chelsea with tense negotiations between sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s representatives and the UK government. Briefings from both sides underline the complexity of what is one of the most unusual auctions of all time. Catch up on the latest here.

In this week’s issue, we dive deeper into the foreign stars lighting up North America’s National Basketball Association and what the resolution of an equal pay dispute means for US women’s football.

Do read on — Samuel Agini, sports business reporter

The NBA’s ‘Giannis effect’ and driving revenue growth overseas

The NBA may be a US-based league, but increasingly, its best players are from Europe or beyond.

Four of the top five finalists for the 2022 league MVP award were born overseas, with the trophy presented to Nikola Jokić of Serbia for the second year in a row. As the NBA conference finals kicked off this week, the rising star of the postseason has been Luka Dončić of Slovenia, who led the Dallas Mavericks in a stunning Game 7 rout of the overall No. 1 seed Phoenix Suns.

The success of international players is the result of several decades of talent development and recruitment by the NBA and as the case of Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo illustrates, one star can transform an ailing franchise.

Before Giannis joined the Milwaukee Bucks in 2013 and the current ownership group acquired the franchise in 2014, the team was “probably the most distressed asset in pro sports” said Peter Feigin, the Bucks president. In an interview with Scoreboard, he recounted how the Wisconsin-based front office reimagined its growth potential based on the addition of Antetokounmpo, what he calls the “Giannis effect”.

“When the team was acquired, we thought about ‘how do we sell tickets to the people in the state of Wisconsin’”, Feigin said. As the third-smallest media market among the NBA’s 30 teams, the Midwestern city couldn’t compete with global capitals like Los Angeles and New York in terms of viewership. But the dynamic talent of Antetokounmpo, now a two-time MVP and an NBA Finals champion, has transformed the prospects of the franchise.

Feigin said Antetokounmpo’s rise has coincided with 20 per cent compounded growth for the Bucks over the past five years. “We pitch ourselves as a global team”, he said, rather than a purely Midwestern product. During that time they have participated in exhibition matches in London and Paris, and will play the first-ever NBA game on the Arabian peninsula when the Bucks face the Atlanta Hawks this October.

Mark Tatum, deputy commissioner for the NBA, told Scoreboard that subscriptions to its proprietary streaming platform are up 9 per cent year-on-year in Greece, and up 40 per cent in Africa, where Antetokounmpo is also a draw thanks to his Nigerian heritage. Joel Embiid, the runner-up in the MVP voting who hails from Cameroon, has had similar success in expanding the footprint of his Philadelphia 76ers — a person familiar with the matter told Scoreboard that the team secured it’s largest-ever commercial partnership with Crypto.com, its jersey patch supplier, based on their interest in aligning with Embiid.

Conversely, the Bucks and Sixers have not yet achieved the level of brand awareness of baseball’s New York Yankees or football’s Manchester United, whose kits and logos are ubiquitous around the world. But among the US professional leagues, the NBA’s model is the leader in driving franchise growth from international talent.

After more than six years of public campaigning and legal fighting, this week the defending women’s World Cup champion US national football team agreed to terms for equal pay with their male counterparts.

In a landmark decision, the national governing body US Soccer Federation said this week that the players associations for both the women’s and men’s squads will receive equivalent base pay and benefits while also splitting prize money from the World Cup and a share of commercial partnerships, ticket sales, and broadcast revenues.

The labour agreements are the formal conclusion of the high-profile efforts by the US women’s national team (UWNT) to receive equal pay with their male counterparts for — indisputably — better play. The American women have won four World Cups, including the preceding two, while the US men have never won the title and indeed failed to qualify for the 2018 event.

Elected officials in the US from New York mayor Eric Adams to President Joe Biden tweeted their support of the new labour deal and applauded the efforts of football stars in reaching economic parity.

The politicisation of the women footballer’s labour victory comes at a time of broader economic challenges in the US; runaway inflation is not yet under control, according to Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, and further still, circumstances for women’s rights and health are under attack.

Earlier this month, a leaked draft opinion by the US Supreme Court indicates that the federal precedent for abortion rights, known as Roe vs Wade, is likely to be overturned; in a completely unrelated fiasco, American families are facing a critical shortage of baby formula due to a confluence of supply chain issues and a product recall.

All of which is to say: can a labour victory for women footballers be considered a success for women’s stature in society, amid a backdrop of contracting rights and resources? And if not, are public or private forces best positioned to ensure equity and progress for their constituents?

Like other US professional leagues and governing bodies, US Soccer is a non-profit. It considers its mission to grow and develop the sport of football to become “the pre-eminent sport in the United States” where — famously — it lags behind American football, baseball, and others. Its labour agreement claims to make its national teams among the highest paid among Fifa members.

If the women’s team members’ hard-fought victory for equal pay, safe pitch quality, and a share of the commercial pot that their athletic performance has generated does not lift the economic circumstances of other American women — perhaps it may serve as an example for the rest of global football.

Highlights

• Real Madrid agreed a €360mn deal with investment group Sixth Street and US sports entertainment group Legends to develop concerts and events at the Santiago Bernabéu. The plan underlines the rationale behind the ongoing redevelopment of the Spanish football champions’ home stadium, a key priority of president Florentino Pérez.

• The Wimbledon tennis championships is to be stripped of its rankings points, the men’s and women’s professional tours announced yesterday. The decision by the ATP and WTA is a response to last month’s move by the All-England Lawn Tennis Club to ban Russian and Belarusian players from the tournament.

• Scarce and collectible sneakers are fetching sky-high prices at auctions, as investors diversify their portfolios by reallocating a small percentage to an alternative asset growing in popularity.

• Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund acquired a 5 per cent stake — worth roughly $3bn — in games maker Nintendo. It is PIF’s latest investment in the entertainment and sports sector, following the launch of gaming and esports company Savvy Gaming Group, and the acquisition of Newcastle United football club.

Transfer Market

• Tom Harrison, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, the national governing body, is stepping down after more than seven years in the role. The end of Harrison’s reign was marred by scrutiny over the ECB’s handling of a racism scandal that rocked the sport and England’s loss against Australia in the men’s Ashes Test series. However, he has been credited with steering the ECB through the pandemic and growing the organisation’s revenues.

• Nike diversity chief Felicia Mayo is leaving the company after two years in the position. In recent years, internal factions within Nike have debated whether the world’s largest sportswear maker was making enough progress on diversity while adopting progressive marketing campaigns involving star athletes.

Final Whistle

The #EVECRY edition of Tunnel Access could be a lively one! 😅

Subscribe for free to get it first: https://t.co/5JJJqEM2Ig pic.twitter.com/ZigJXD1qzd

— Everton (@Everton) May 20, 2022

It has been a tough season for Everton Football Club. The Toffees have won the English title nine times in their history but have spent much of this season flirting with relegation from the Premier League. In need of victory at home against Crystal Palace to guarantee survival, Everton found themselves trailing by a two-goal deficit at half time. For a team that’s planning a move to a brand new stadium, giving up its lucrative Premier League status would’ve been disastrous after losing £371mn in the last three seasons. But a triumphant comeback in the second half was capped by Dominic Calvert-Lewin scoring the winner, sending Goodison Park into smoky blue rapture. Just look at what it means here.