The NBA laid off dozens of employees Wednesday as the league continues to overhaul its workforce to address new priorities, a source with knowledge of the decision, who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, told The Athletic.The NBA has reorganized itself over the last year as the league turns its focus to a new league in Europe and deals with a decaying domestic broadcast ecosystem. It shuffled executives around this past fall and implemented an organizational restructure.Wednesday’s layoffs put the NBA further down that path. The league intends to reallocate resources toward other areas of emerging growth, such as the WNBA and the planned European league, as well as into its local media strategy.Sports Business Journal was first to report the news.The NBA plans to launch a new European league in the next two years and took final bids Tuesday for franchises in the new project. The NBA intends to have 12 permanent members in the league, along with four wild-card members. It is working with FIBA, the Switzerland-based international governing body for basketball, to stand up the league.
“We’re extremely encouraged by the final bids we received for permanent franchises in a new NBA and FIBA-backed league in Europe, which reflect the tremendous interest and momentum around this project,” deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said Tuesday in a statement. “This will be the biggest influx of capital European basketball has ever seen, and we have clear frontrunners in each of our 12 target cities including many existing basketball and football clubs.”The Athletic has previously reported that the ownership groups and executives behind prominent European sporting clubs Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and AC Milan have shown interest in running teams in the league. The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund has also been tied to a potential London franchise.The NBA must also figure out the future of its local broadcasts, as regional sports networks lose subscribers and reach, and after Main Street Sports Group shut down this year. Thirteen NBA teams aired their local game broadcasts on RSNs owned by Main Street Sports.The league is helping those teams make new arrangements for the 2026-27 season. A number of teams have transitioned from local cable broadcasts to over-the-air channels and streaming apps in recent years, and more could follow suit. The NBA has also considered creating a local League Pass subscription and has discussed the idea with potential partners, but no plans have been announced. The league recently hired Matt Volk, a longtime cable and RSN executive, as its new GM for local media, SBJ reported.The local broadcast issue is one of many large-scale pursuits the NBA is currently working to address. The league has also formally opened the door to expansion. This spring, the NBA board of governors voted to allow the league office to explore opportunities for expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle. If the new franchises join the league, they would likely begin play no earlier than the 2028-29 season.“We need to know by the end of this calendar year what it is we’re doing,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “It may not be that every ‘I’ is dotted, but that would be our goal this year.”
