European basketball is wasting its biggest nights

It’s a great time of year if you’re a basketball fan. All four of the pan-continental competitions have either reached or are hitting their climaxes. Yet all involved with the Euroleague, the Basketball Champions League, Eurocup, and the FIBA Europe Cup missed opportunities. Emmet Ryan on why scheduling collaboration is needed.

It’s a simple problem and one that fans have been vocal about. On too many big nights, time slots are far too crowded for committed European basketball fans. When they should be encouraged to watch more games, they are being forced to make tough choices.

Last week had playoff games in the Euroleague stacked against each other in overlapping time slots. The coming week isn’t a lot better. Meanwhile the FIBA Europe Cup finals were, once again, up against impossible competition. Throw in the Basketball Champions League Final Four in Badalona clashing with potential Game 4s in Euroleague and it’s a right mess.

It’s also one that is reducing the overall broadcasting revenue pie for everyone involved. This is not just a calendar issue, it’s a value one too.

Splitting the audience

Let me tell you something you already know, European basketball’s four competitions aren’t serving entirely separate viewing bases. Yes, an Olympiacos basketball fan will prioritise Olympiacos football over any other basketball team but football already eats enough of the pie without hoops helping it.

It’s also impossible to give absolutely every event its own window. It’s still worth trying to create space when it can be done. The Basketball Champions League Final Four is going up against potential Game 4 action in the Euroleague this coming Friday. Had Barcelona beaten AS Monaco in the play-in, there’d have been games in both a short metro ride from each other on the same night.

Then we drop down to the FIBA Europe Cup. It had a real event feel on site. The crowds in Thessaloniki and Bilbao absolutely brought it. Yet it wasn’t able to be amplified to any degree due to the obvious dominance of the Euroleague’s loaded playoff schedule.

This isn’t an attack on the Euroleague

The last paragraph certainly read like it was. This wasn’t a matter of Euroleague benefiting from clearing the decks so PAOK and Bilbao Basket could have their moment. It’s a sign of the wider challenges with effectively zero calendar cooperation.

The game in Bilbao tipped 45 minutes before Real Madrid’s Game 1 against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Every single viewer that would have been open to watching both, had to make a call. That has a knock-on financial impact.

When a broadcaster buys sports rights, they’re buying appointment viewing. Basketball fans may be a niche but they are a clear one. The potential revenue from ad sales, sponsorship, and broadcast rights on both games dropped as a result. With one game, that may not look like a lot but it is a compounding process.

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Cannibalising your own product

If this were just a matter of the lack of collaboration between FIBA and the Euroleague it would be one thing. Yet the internal decision making at both merits some serious questions. Having three games each Tuesday and Thursday in the first week of the playoffs was just a terrible look for the Euroleague.

It, of course, was worse than that as less than an hour separated the three tipoff times. That basically nuked the potential for lead-in audiences from one game to another. Furthermore, Game 2 of the Eurocup finals overlapped as well. That meant the secondary competition of the Euroleague had no hope of gaining any kind of casual audience.

Considering the rivalry between Fenerbahce and Besiktas in all sports, that was just a poor call. Not that FIBA gets off scott free here. Its premier 3×3 event in Europe, the FIBA 3×3 Europe Cup was held the same weekend as the round of 16 at EuroBasket 25. That ruined any hope of an obvious casual viewer boost for the former event.

Again, this leaves money on the table

The calendar cramming at this stage of the season highlights a year-long issue. Decisions on when games start are excessively localised. Obviously the core local market will always be the biggest single earner but you grow the pot by maximising your revenue sources.

That means clear windows and a sensible schedule designed to get the most out of both sides, local and non-core fan viewers. Suppose FC Barcelona had made the playoffs and there was collaboration between the Euroleague and the Basketball Champions League?

They could have turned Wednesday through Sunday of this coming week into a loaded basketball festival across 4 of 5 nights. Barcelona and Badalona, separated by 45 minutes on public transport, both shining a spotlight on the sport. Instead, had Barcelona qualified, it would have been a direct clash.

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It’s about what’s best for business

It’s rare when idealism and mammon are on the same page. When there are, those with decision-making power should take note. The vast bulk of the constraints to a more viewer-friendly schedule are self-made. The hurdles that are there with domestic broadcast deals can be overcome if those broadcasters. Broadcasters like making money and they will see the potential to benefit from a better structured schedule.

There is no need for Europe’s top basketball events to fall directly on top of each other so much. The Euroleague and FIBA/Basketball Champions League don’t even have to like each other to see the financial benefit in collaborating. Even without collaboration, each can do more to better package the calendars they directly control.

The status quo isn’t just leaving money on the table by making fans choose. It’s limiting the potential to grow the audience by reducing ease of access for potential new fans. That reduces the appeal to those willing to spend commercially on every aspect of the product. That’s just not good business.

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