	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 9, 2010

THE MODERATOR: Thank you everyone for joining us for today's conference call. With us for our announcement today are NBA Commissioner David Stern and senior vice president of NBA Europe, Sophie Goldschmidt. Commissioner Stern will begin the call with opening statements and then we will open the call for questions. Now turn the call over to Commissioner Stern.
COMMISSIONER STERN: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, in Europe, and good morning here in the U.S., and thank you for joining us. It's my pleasure to make the announcement today that the NBA will be playing its first regular-season games in Europe on March 4 and March 5 when the Toronto Raptors and the New Jersey Nets will compete at the O2 in London.
To me, this is the next step in the progression about which we spoke previously leading up to the London Olympics, which for us presents an extraordinary opportunity for the continued growth of basketball in Europe and in the U.K.
I look forward to addressing this subject possibly again after our sold-out Europe Live game on October 4 in London. And I expect that we'll be announcing other events later on in the fall with respect to the build-up to these March 4 and March 5 games with these two exciting young teams.
I know that there has been a lot of coverage recently of the Great Britain team leading up to EuroBasket, and I think that's great that it's getting the coverage that I think our sport will continue to get in a very positive way as the sports fans in the United Kingdom get to see basketball at the highest levels.
With that, other than to say that I'm delighted to be able to make this announcement, and we consider the U.K. to be an important market in the NBA's global development, and I must add that tickets will go on sale on September 1.
Other than that, I'm very happy to take questions. Thank you again.

Q. Mr. Stern, you said in an interview this year that if there is any chance that the women can get into the NBA, do you still think about it and do you think in the foreseeable future some women will get into the NBA?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I don't think about it a lot because I have a lot of business opportunities and problems that I'm dealing with, but it would not surprise me at all over some period of time if an extraordinary female athlete is able to play in the NBA. I don't know that it's going to happen any time soon, but I think that that is a plausible outcome.

Q. I was just wondering whether this next step, as you talked about, changes your longer-term perspective with a view to a division of the NBA in Europe. Are you still looking at the same timeframe we talked about previously?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Nothing has changed. This to us is really within the context of giving as much support as we can to the sport of basketball for the 2012 Olympics. The London Games I think are going to focus many current and prospective NBA and basketball fans on our sport. It's going to make basketball shine as a sport of passion, intensity, teamwork, and a great deal of diversity and inclusiveness. And that's really the framework that we are looking at. The rest we'll just have to see how it plays out after the 2012 Olympics.

Q. And can you explain why it's so important for this to be a competitive fixture and not just exhibition?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Actually, to me it's less important than to many of my friends in the media. I think that when the Lakers played FC Barcelona that's going to be pretty exciting; and when the Knicks play the Timberwolves -- are the Knicks playing the Timberwolves?

Q. Yeah, Knicks play Timberwolves in Paris.
COMMISSIONER STERN: Yeah, that will be exciting to see those players. You know, just as, to me, in the U.S., when a DPL team comes to play the Red Bulls, no one says, 'Oh, my goodness, we need a fixture here.'
I think that friendlies are fine. But because of the to-and-fro in earlier visits, we made a commitment that we would bring a regular-season game to the U.K. before 2012, and so we are keeping our commitment on that, that's all.

Q. I was wondering if you could just sort of put in your own words the kind of impact you want to see this game have in terms of really exciting fans ahead of the Olympics?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, first of all, with the Raptors and the Nets, they are going to be -- they are going to have players who might possibly, not certainly, but possibly playing for France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Lithuania.
And this is going to demonstrate to us, based upon the rosters of these two teams, as they may even be modified further going into these Games, the global representation in the sport and give fans an appreciation of what globalization has meant to us and how the sport itself has captured the imagination of youngsters all over the world.
And I believe that that is a very important lead-in to the 2012 Olympics, because in Beijing, basketball was the hottest ticket. We don't necessarily expect that to be the case in London, although if things break right with respect to Team Great Britain, I think that there's a good possibility that basketball will assume a role that folks in the United Kingdom might never have anticipated.
So we are very excited about that and we see this as sort of a multi-step process, a development of Team GB, the friendlies this autumn and the regular-season games in March; we want as much as possible to demonstrate the power and fun of this sport of ours.

Q. You talked about particularly the Raptors have a strong international influence; the Nets, as well; were those two teams picked specifically for that reason?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I would say that both expressed to us their strong interest in being part of the globalization of our sport, and so we could work out in a most convenient way for us and them: Toronto demonstrating to us that this is not just a United States sport, we crossed the border into the Commonwealth; and Mr. Prokhorov, someone with great global vision, now owning the Nets, was very interested in having the Nets, who will also be participating in our China games this season in October; to have the Nets part of a global push, as well.

Q. Is this planned to be a one-off event or an annual event in London?
COMMISSIONER STERN: You know, I'm -- (chuckling) -- right now I'm not looking much further than March. We are going to be sold out in October. My guess is we'll be sold out in March, and it would not surprise me if we had other teams volunteering for this service.
But actually, we would rather not make a promise that we couldn't fulfill. We'll need to assess how we do in March, what the impact is, and we're going to go from there. It would not surprise me if this became an annual event. There's a great arena there. We've worked so well with AEG that does a great job both in the United States and Europe.
And so it wouldn't surprise me at all and we would look forward to it but I don't want to make a commitment on it.

Q. Just wanted to ask you, traditionally these games have been -- if they haven't been played in the United States, they have been played at the beginning of the season, why so late in the season for these two games?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I don't know what you mean by traditionally. Explain that to me.

Q. I guess the Japan games in Mexico City were played at the beginning of the year.
COMMISSIONER STERN: I see. Well, because we have already scheduled our friend lies, and we were looking for a way to do this after that, and so as we looked at the schedule, we found a very good place that would make sense with respect to the travel of these two teams.
And so that's simply the way it broke as a matter of the scheduling. Remember the Nets have previously been scheduled to go to China, so we didn't think it would be fair to travel them twice at that time, and we already had the friendlies scheduled in October.

Q. So it wasn't to schedule these as close to a year out from London as possible?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, we liked that idea, and we didn't think April made sense, but March in the height of the season when we found the date, it was a good thing.
You know, we are not unmindful that Team GB is in the middle of attempting to quality for EuroBasket and has beaten Macedonia and Hungary and hopefully will do well. I'm not allowed to root too hard for international teams, but it would be great if Team GB demonstrated its basketball prowess and Luol Deng and Pops (Mensah-Bonsu) stay healthy.
So it just seemed to us that this season, late, since we are doing the preseason games, the friendlies in October, was a good idea.

Q. Will there be other games like that in the next season, in particular 2012, or if the risk of a lockout is too much important?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, I certainly don't want to project or talk about a lockout at this time. And we are going to really make our plans for 2012 after we see how the friendlies go in October and these regular-season games go in March. I think that we have scheduled a collective bargaining meeting with our players this week, and we hope to be having many such meetings so that we can avoid discussions or thoughts about lockouts.
But I think that when you look at our record, we have played a number of games in London. There have been seven games in London. We have played many, many games in Europe other than London; 50 games over the last number of many years. So we are firmly committed to a European-friendly presence and this takes us to the regular-season context, and we hope to continue building on this and not make it only Londoncentric but make it Eurocentric.

Q. What about the possibility to have a franchise sooner or later in Europe?
COMMISSIONER STERN: As I've said many times, I think one franchise doesn't work; it needs to be multiple franchises in new buildings or good buildings like London, Berlin, Colon, Prague. We need more buildings. And we need owners, and frankly, we need good television, and we need a better economy. And so I don't see that happening any time soon, but I think it certainly is something that I and my successors will be considering.

Q. You talked about the Nets and the Raptors specifically having the European and international rosters that would be recognizable to fans in Europe, but why those two teams when there are so many other franchises in the league that have that same kind of cachÃ© with players from other countries?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, this is a continual negotiation, Doug. We are talking to people, and the Raptors stepped up and said because they are very much an internationally-focused team, they would like to be considered. And Mr. Prokhorov, when he bought the team, made it clear he would like very much to travel. Some teams are more anxious to travel than others; or rather, some teams are more opposed to travel than others. And so we had these two teams and it seemed like a good idea.
The Raptors have, you know, in my view, both a very enlightened both ownership and management, and very much an international perspective. And so they didn't have to be sold too hard on this concept because it fits in with their plans. They play in this great city, which is as diverse and inclusive as you can get for a North American city. So we really like the idea of the Raptors, given their ownership, their management, their roster and their perspective and their city. It seems very easy for us.

Q. How can you see that you can capitalize on this and kind of help British basketball alongside when you had 1,500 people yesterday, which is pretty small, to watch Great Britain's game, you get a thousand people at a British League game; what can you use these games to deliver a side benefit to the sport here?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, it's always about the games itself and the activities around the game. When we were there last year with our friendly in October, we did community service; we did clinics; we did court dedications. And you can expect that there will be a pretty dramatic build-up in the same fashion to the March 4 and 5 games that begin to demonstrate to people that this basketball, particularly NBA basketball, but we hope all basketball has drawing power, especially for kids; it's a very inclusive sport.
When we have these rosters that demonstrate the impact that globalization is having on the NBA, we think that, you know, that, together with the focus that we think the LOCOG will be putting on basketball is going to be a very catalytic sort of series of events that will keep basketball in the public eye and open up people's eyes to the potential of it.

Q. As you know the World Championship is supposed to start in a few weeks in Turkey and you also know that most of the biggest stars in different countries, especially also in the U.S., refuse to go there. Some of them are talking some excuses, paltry excuse; do you think it's a pity? Do you think it's a way to see that the national team are going in the future going to be jeopardized by the business market of the club interest, and what is your opinion about this?
COMMISSIONER STERN: My opinion is it's a good thing that young players get the chance to excel on the international stage. And the world championships are going to be just as exciting as they have been in the past. And it's actually too much to ask all of those great players to play full seasons and then play internationally every -- really, not every two years, but almost every year. We are going to wind up breaking down the players, so we have to find a balance between playing for your league team and playing for your national team.
I think the best balance will ultimately work out to be that, you know, a player can come up in the ranks of teams and play on an international competition, and then maybe move away so that new, younger players can have the pleasure of playing for their country.
So I don't have a problem with that at all. I think that we need to show that we are a much broader sport than we have been in the past.

Q. Would you go further into the decision having the Nets play these games both in London and China kind of a team that's in flux as kind of the face of the global push?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I guess I would say that China has long been scheduled, and this opportunity became available when Mr. Prokhorov bought the team and said he would like to be considered for as broad a base of travel as we could have.
And I think that was a natural for us. We fully expect, you know -- there were many teams in flux, as you say, but we fully expect the Nets to be a competitive team this year, and given their appetite for international travel, it makes sense for us to take this step. It's as simple as that.

Q. And what is your general philosophy, preference, regarding nickname changes for teams that are changing locations?
COMMISSIONER STERN: You know, I mean, you're talking to the commissioner of a league that has the Los Angeles Lakers named in Minneapolis; the Utah Jazz named in New Orleans; the char the low -- no, I guess it's the New Orleans Hornets named in Charlotte, and so on. I can't even remember, wasn't it Houston -- was it the San Diego Rockets? I can't even remember any more, it was so long ago. We have all of these -- the Sacramento Kings, I guess they were the Royals, Kansas City. We go both ways on this one and I think it's very much a local preference.

Q. I just had a quick follow-up question on the regular seasons. I know that you're saying that you can't commit beyond the March date next year, but if things do go well, and you're talking about making it more European, which could be the next city or the next cities that you would go and hold these regular-season games in Europe?
COMMISSIONER STERN: You know, in some ways, it's going to become a serious financial issue, because the potential gate at 02, given its size and pricing strategies that have worked there will yield more than some other cities.
So without me seeing a spreadsheet of how it is, how the computation would get made, I can't really say anything right now, or I don't have a notion about it. Because I know that -- I don't have the numbers in front of me, but we priced out what it takes to take away home games from teams and it may be an issue with respect to other teams and other cities, so that has to be done on a one by one basis.

Q. So is there any idea which city could go next after London?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I don't want to get into that statement or negotiation right now. First thing is first. We have the friendlies, we have the regular season, and then we are going to take stock at the end of the season.

Q. And just finally, in terms of revenues for the NBA, how important is Europe as a region as you try to globalize the game?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I think Europe is, for us, second to China as a potential revenue source, and we shall continue to develop in Europe. We have a presence in large European cities and we are going to keep working there with respect to all of the things we do, which is clinics and grass roots events, marketing and marketing partnerships, global merchandising, and television and Internet arrangements.
So we view Europe as a particularly fertile place, and we think that we are particularly under developed in Eastern Europe, as well, and that's something we'll have something to say about in the next several months, as well.

Q. And do we have a figure of the percentage of revenues that come from Europe?
COMMISSIONER STERN: You know, I'm sure we do. I'm surrounded by my sports PR staff, and I don't want to make them look bad, but my guess is that certainly double digits. I just don't know where it goes.

Q. I just want to know whether you're going to be looking for sponsorship for the tour?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I'm sorry? Would you ask that again, please?

Q. I just wanted to know whether you're going to be looking for sponsorship for the NBA fixture.
COMMISSIONER STERN: We are always looking for sponsorship. You name it: Whether it's a fixture, a friendly, a clinic. I don't want to make Sophie's job harder than it already is, but the pressure is on our London office to make sure that our revenues for this event are robust enough to cover its expenses, and it wouldn't be terrible if we made a little profit on it, as well.
So the answer is a resounding yes, Sarah.

Q. So you don't actually have any sponsorship at the moment then; am I right?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Sophie, is she right?
SOPHIE GOLDSCHMIDT: We have not announced any sponsors yet, correct, Sarah, but we expect to in the very near future.
COMMISSIONER STERN: So there; I put the pressure on Sophie and she's ready to respond.

Q. And can you recap how many fixtures are there going to be?
COMMISSIONER STERN: There are going to be two fixtures on March 4 and 5 at O2 between the Toronto Raptors and the New Jersey Nets.

Q. And they go on sale in September, the ticket?
COMMISSIONER STERN: On September 1. So you'd better get on queue.

Q. Can I just ask quickly, as well, is there anyone in particular you've been looking for sponsorship deals?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, we have a number that are in the negotiation pipeline, the truth be told, and as we finalize them the deals and put them into writing, we will announce the deals. We expect to have a good sponsor lineup. I think it's going to be -- it should be much larger than Sophie is going to think it should be, but that's a continual dialogue between us.

Q. You're not able to tell me any of those you have in the pipeline at the moment?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Not at this point.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about any consultation you've had to make both with the union in terms of competitive games and kind of from a basketball operations and travel standpoint, what lessons that you've had to look at to stage two regular-season games across the Atlantic?
COMMISSIONER STERN: It's really just about the question of, you know, comfort, and respect for their ability to play at the highest level and have enough rest and come back and play at the high level. One of the things that we do with our teams that have traveled overseas is make sure that they are treated in the best possible way and make them as comfortable as possible. And virtually to a person, our players come back and say, that was great, I'd like to do it again.
And the union knows that we are committed to that, and that's what -- that's just the way we work it, because we can't afford to have our players think that this is an undo burden on them and we certainly cannot afford to have affect both the competitiveness and the teams on their return.
So we are very mindful of that and we consult and work with the union across the board.

Q. Will you be building any time for teams to come over in advance in terms of publicizing and promoting, or will it be quite a tight schedule?
COMMISSIONER STERN: There will be substantial pregame promotion; exactly who that is done with, whether it's current, retired or what-have-you, but I think you may see some players from these teams in market possibly in September when the tickets go on sale. I just don't know for sure, but there will be very much an NBA presence leading up to and around these games that involves players, both past and present.

Q. Just wanted to touch on something you spoke about earlier, about the meeting this week and the reports that have been coming out recently; I was just wondering what the exact financial state of the league is.
COMMISSIONER STERN: I would say that our revenues are robust, and it's taking more expense and effort to produce them than it has historically.
So we are looking for -- we are not pleading poverty. We are pleading the need -- we are stating the need for an approved revenue versus expense model that would be demonstrably sustainable and continued to allow our sport to grow.

Q. And just ask, what do you think the likelihood of the lockout in 2011 is at the moment?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, you're asking someone that question who is committed to do anything possible to avoid it. So I'm not going to put odds on it, because that would mean that we failed, and I don't want to anticipate failure.
Thanks everybody for being interested. We really appreciate the time you spent with us. I look forward to seeing the U.K. members of this contingent in October when we are there at 02.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297