How to Create an NBA Basketball Team for Your Town in a 10-Year Period

This article presents a personal ten-year scenario imagined in November 2016.

I have always liked the saying "If Muhammad will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Muhammad". This illustrates how powerful one can be: with faith, one can even make mountains come to oneself. Therefore, we will consider the seemingly impossible or improbable idea of creating an NBA basketball team that plays in your own town. Let's imagine your town is Vigo, a city in Spain that has a population of approximately 300,000 people, with peaks of 500,000 on working days.

Local clubs and potential sponsors

There are already a few teams available, such as Seis do Nadal (Sixth of Christmas), VGO Basket and Rías Baixas (Lower Estuaries). Some of them have already ascended from one league to a higher one. This has taken them two years. Now that they are in the EBA league, they have the possibility of obtaining a better sponsor. For example, they could obtain sponsorship from the PSA Peugeot Citroën car factory. I personally asked the General Directorate of Brands in Madrid, and José A. León Capitán answered negatively, but perhaps he will change his mind in the future if he sees the city's basketball potential. Or they could be sponsored by companies in Vigo, such as Delta Vigo, Sivsa, etc., with contracts associated with the drone centre in Rozas, Castro de Rei (Lugo), a project awarded to Indra and Inaer. They would be good sponsors, and the city's teams could then play in more important leagues if they also achieve promotion on the court, thanks to the young players of Vigo who are developing their basketball skills.

The NBA at Samil beach in Vigo

From the EBA league to the ACB

Then the objective is to ascend through several leagues to the Endesa League, also called the ACB. That could take at least five more years. The problem here is that there is already an important football (soccer) team in the city (Celta or Celtiña), and the interests of both teams could collide. So the future main basketball team of Vigo should preferably play in the surroundings of Vigo, for example in Porriño. This is an improbable place to play, but I think it would be optimum, because Porriño also has good basketball.

Imagining an NBA team near Vigo

Two more years would be needed to become established in the ACB League. Probably, by then, the NBA, under commissioner Adam Silver, would want to create a division in Europe, and Vigo's team could be accepted as an important emerging team from Spain. One year later, we could have the team playing near Vigo (in Porriño), that is, in our own town.

For the wider ambition behind this proposal, see On the Way to the NBA Ring: The Book Project (2016), which considers the long process of building a team capable of competing at the highest level.

Update (technical note): for the infrastructure side of a professional basketball project, see the public–private concession framework and institutional precedent for a multi-event arena.