NBA plan could see Man City in pole position to create a new team

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Manchester City could follow in the footsteps of Real Madrid and Barcelona as part of bold plans by the NBA to crack the European market.

The world’s most prominent professional basketball league, America’s NBA, wants to expand its footprint in Europe, a continent that while producing more superstar players than ever before for the NBA, is commercially underdeveloped and where there are few strong professional top tiers.

The NBA, as first reported by The Times, are expected to announce a new multi-year deal to bring regular season games over to Europe, with Manchester’s 23,500-seater Co-Op Live arena expected to the choice, with live games over the past 15 years having largely been played at London’s O2 Arena.

That move could kick the door open to a potential Manchester City franchise in a European NBA league, something that is on the agenda of the NBA as it looks for further expansion in the future. READ MORE: Man City and Pep Guardiola must unleash £120million trio READ MORE: Akanji, Grealish, Bobb - Man City injury latest and return dates before Newcastle and Real Madrid At present, domestic basketball is largely dominated in terms of the strength of competition by Spain, Italy, Turkey and Greece.