Euroleague Final Four 2025: Why It’s in Abu Dhabi

The decision to move the Euroleague Final Four to Abu Dhabi has not been without controversy. While lucrative in the immediate term, questions remain over the long-term strategy.

It’s Euroleague Final Four week and the eyes of the basketball world shift towards Abu Dhabi. The decision to move the showpiece event away from the competition’s strongholds has received a mixed reaction. While a sellout is assured, there are still questions over the decision.

The Global Expansion Strategy

It’s no secret that Euroleague has a long-standing goal of growing beyond its traditional strongholds. In Europe, that love affair has mostly been with London and Paris. The reasons for those locations are simple. They are large markets with a lot of money in them.

Abu Dhabi presents an immediate cash boost and a vision for access to more. Landing the competition’s showpiece event in the UAE makes a statement. The Euroleague Final Four is as big as it gets in European basketball, at least at a club level.

By gaining access to the Gulf and West Asia at large, Euroleague can seek more ways to attract new investment. This may be outside of its traditional market but there’s a key bit of semantics to address here. The N in the NBA stands for National. It already has a Canadian team but we don’t harp on that. In much the same way, Euroleague could always argue the Eur is for the Eurasian plate if people really want to moan about it. The goal is expansion to increase revenue, wherever that may be.

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The Money and the Message

If this website has ever insulted the intelligence of a reader, it has not been intentional. Today will be no different. The Euroleague Final Four is in Abu Dhabi because of money. Everything else that is pointed out is secondary. Money is the motive for Euroleague saying yes. That includes potential access to more money.

For Abu Dhabi, this is a matter of sports diplomacy. The exercise of soft power is of increasing importance to nations in the Middle East and the UAE is no different. We knew that with Qatar and the FIFA World Cup, with Saudi Arabia and the FIFA World Cup, and we will know it with Qatar (again) and the FIBA World Cup. The presence of F1 across the region, along with UFC and other sports is about improving the international image of these states.

Those who argue that sports and politics shouldn’t mix tend to miss the problem with their argument. Sports is politics. The interaction of people or peoples in any way is a political act, even something as simple as buying a cup of coffee is. You choose to pay, and observe the laws of the state, or not, and thus not observe while risking the consequences.

Sports takes that to another level as regional and cultural rivalries are given a platform to contest one another. Saying there is nothing political in a business agreement between a multinational company based in Spain (Euroleague) and any entity in the UAE (however you define Abu Dhabi’s involvement), is categorically false. You may not like it but that’s politics, it just is.

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What the Venue Offers (and What It Doesn’t)

Etihad Arena is a state-of-the-art facility, one the NBA has been more than happy to use. That means there will be logistical upsides for the players in terms of facilities and for corporate partners as well in terms of working with guests etc.

The fandom will be very much of the arriving variety, which is normal with any Euroleague Final Four. Abu Dhabi may not have much of a basketball culture but its reliance on fans of the teams being the bulk of the crowd and bringing most of the atmosphere is no different to any major sporting event anywhere.

What is truly lacks is familiarity with the fandom. That is to say, how best to cater to those visiting. The mix from Greece and Turkey in terms of basketball fans is not something they are used to catering to in terms of providing means of entertainment. That should be more than compensated by the fact that basketball fans are industrious and will find ways to be adequately entertained.

The Fan Backlash

The criticism of the event has not exactly been quiet. The costs of attending in Abu Dhabi, not least because of flights, is irksome to many fans. There’s also the cultural impact of the decision to move the Euroleague Final Four outside of the traditional geographic footprint.

There has never been a professional sports organisation that didn’t sell out to some degree. It’s how they sold out that’s the question. How will this approach to growth by Euroleague impact its relationship with its core market? That’s the enormous question that is being overlooked. It’s an obvious short-term win but weakening the relationship with the primary customer, even slightly in the immediate sense, can be devastating in the long-term.

An individual being upset or angry at a brand is manageable. Apathy is the real enemy because that seeps in and rots the root itself. That is much harder to cure and far more expensive. Anger is your warning sign as an entity, be you Euroleague or anyone else, that the real danger could lie ahead.

Is This the Future or a One-Off?

Where or what next for the Euroleague Final Four? Indeed, what for the competition as a whole? It’s hard to imagine these moves begin and end with Abu Dhabi. We’ve already seen investments being made by Dubai BC, which would hint at a permanent fixture in the Gulf. Furthermore, it’s likely that Abu Dhabi will host at least another two Final Fours in the near future.

Would Riyadh or Jeddah be on the table? What about Doha? There is reason for Euroleague to be patient on this front. The FIBA World Cup will be in Qatar in 2027. The performance of that tournament will provide oodles of information for Euroleague to work with to aid any expansion plans.

There will also be lessons to be learned from this experiment. It’s worth noting that Dubai BC are hardly bringing in large crowds for ABA League. Whatever the performance in Abu Dhabi, decisions can’t all come down to what happens on Yas Island. The impact on the core market needs to be factored in. Apathy not anger remains the key issue of which to be wary.

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