By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
As Eurohoops reported on the 6th of May Euroleague is expected to change, a format of 16 teams is on the table among others and “El Mundo Deportivo” published the details of this proposal which are both interesting and puzzling.
Euroleague is offering to the teams the ability to sell their own television rights without keeping 25% of the television contracts, like the management of the competition is doing now, and the money bonuses for wins will increase drastically. Each win will translate to a 40.000 euros bonus for the winner – the bonus until now is just 7.000 euros – the bonus for winning the title will be one million euros, instead of 250.000 euros, and 400.000 euros for the finalist instead of 125.000 euros.
That means Euroleague, despite missing a respectable sum of revenues after not getting a share of the television contracts, will increase the money given to the teams. That can be explained by the reduction of the teams, but on the other hand the new 16 teams format will also mean a 30 games regular season, creating more calendar issues with the domestic leagues and the national teams tournaments.
In any case it’s obvious that Euroleague and FIBA are trying to outbid each other and the big clubs of Europe at this point are favoring the possibility of continue working under the Euroleague banner. It remains to be seen what FIBA has to propose, specially on financial terms.