Can a LIV Golf-style basketball league pose a real challenge to the NBA?
A group of investors believe in the idea enough to raise $5 billion to create a league and figure out according to a report by Bloomberg. The investors hired Maverick Carter — LeBron James’ longtime friend and business partner — as an advisor, the report said. LeBron himself is not involved, directly or indirectly.
The league would initially consist of six men’s and six women’s teams, playing more in a golf or tennis event format. The teams traveled to eight different cities around the world – not just the United States – and played games there for two weeks each. This is similar to the situation in which Ice Cube’s Big 3 league has found some success (although it is only a North American product and is in town for one week at a time).
The LIV Golf comparison arises from the fact that investors can (and likely will) include private equity groups and sovereign wealth funds (like Saudi Arabia’s), whose stakes in an NBA team are currently limited are. This is a huge source of money to tap into.
Would the investment be worth it?
What gave LIV Golf prominence was that it spent big money to acquire some of the biggest names in the sport – Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, etc. – by handing out massive guaranteed contracts. NBA contracts are already guaranteed, and the contracts are already huge and growing – this summer, Luka Doncic will be offered and signed a five-year, $346.3 million “supermax” contract extension. There are 27 NBA players making more than $40 million this season and 23 have total contracts worth more than $200 million.
How many male players would be willing to move to an untested league if they were making so much money in the current system? If there was enough money some would consider it, but for the men alone it would take 80 to 90 players to field the six teams. Would the league end up chasing aging stars who couldn’t get the final NBA payday they wanted but could find it in this league? Would the fans watch?
Given the lower salaries of the top WNBA players – A’Ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier – it would theoretically be easier to poach them to a new league. In theory, it’s also possible to buy enough top men’s players to attract attention, but the question is how much money (and for how many years) are investors willing to lose to establish the league?
Since its founding in 1949, more than 30 leagues have attempted to challenge the NBA, and only one – the ABA of the late 1960s and early 1970s – prevailed before merging with the NBA (giving us the New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers).
Chances are this new league won’t be as successful today, but when investors’ funds are deep enough, they’ll figure it out.