{"id":152629,"date":"2025-06-02T17:22:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T17:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152629\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T17:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T17:22:14","slug":"he-was-pushing-me-london-mayor-wants-to-host-nba-games-but-manchesters-400m-arena-could-win-north-south-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152629\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He was pushing me’ – London Mayor wants to host NBA games but Manchester’s $400m arena could win North-South battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

London wants to host future NBA games.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So does Manchester, which features a new state-of-the-art arena in northern England that could become a perfect regular-season venue for Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, Nikola Jokic<\/a> or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"LeBron<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

LeBron James could play in England before he walks away from the NBACredit: Getty<\/p>\n

With the NBA<\/a> Finals set to begin as SGA’s Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> face Tyrese Haliburton’s Indiana Pacers<\/a> in a small-market showdown, one of America’s biggest sports continues to target legitimate international expansion. <\/p>\n

NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum said on Monday that London and Manchester are both hoping to bring regular-season games for the biggest basketball league in the world to England.<\/p>\n

Tatum also revealed that London Mayor Sadiq Khan<\/a> has been pushing for months for the NBA to re-connect with a global city that recently hosted LeBron James<\/a>, Stephen Curry<\/a> and Team USA at The 02<\/a> during exhibition games that led to a gold meda<\/a>l in the 2024 Summer Olympics<\/a> in Paris.<\/p>\n

“Basketball is the fastest growing sport in the UK, the country’s second most popular team sport,” Tatum exclusively told talkSPORT. <\/p>\n

“I did meet with Mayor Sadiq Khan in September, and we discussed our shared ambition to expand basketball in London.<\/p>\n

“He was clearly pushing me for return of games back to London. And I do think that that’s something that will happen in the not too distant future.”<\/p>\n

The NBA is trying to catch up to the all-powerful NFL<\/a> in the modern push for international expansion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The biggest ‘next step’ for The Association would be the creation of an NBA European league.<\/p>\n

Growth of basketball in England is critical for that step to occur.<\/p>\n

“There are no top-tier teams in the UK,” Tatum said.<\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Stephen Curry and James put on a sold-out show at The 02 before winning goldCredit: Getty\"Jaylen<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics played in London in 2018Credit: Getty\"Gordon<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Gordon Ramsay also took in an NBA gameCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“We think that there has to be, because we know that the demand –that the number of fans in the UK, that the size of the market — that we have to service those fans.”<\/p>\n

Enter Manchester, which hosts two Premier League<\/a> clubs and features the $400 million Co-op Live arena.<\/p>\n

The NBA has previously been linked with Manchester games, yet dates have not been made official.<\/p>\n

Tatum made it clear that Manchester has caught the NBA’s eye, and praised an arena<\/a> that initially suffered a string of embarrassing delays. <\/p>\n

“There has been interest from Manchester, as well, to host an NBA game,” Tatum said. <\/p>\n

“They built a beautiful, brand new indoor arena in Manchester.”<\/p>\n

NBA’s Greatest<\/p>\n

\"\"Kevin Durant says it’s ‘exciting times’ being teammates with Steph Curry again with Team USA back in London<\/p>\n

Tatum added that London also features an “indoor world-class arena” that the NBA has played in before.<\/p>\n

“The facilities are not the issue,” he said. <\/p>\n

But it is obvious that while London attempts to lock in the NBA for future games, the allure of Manchester’s new arena has become hard to ignore. <\/p>\n

“We haven’t announced our plans to come back for Europe yet,” Tatum said. <\/p>\n

“But I would say it’s a good bet that the UK will be in that mix.”<\/p>\n

The easiest play for the NBA would be hosting games in London and Manchester, but that could lessen overall ticket demand.<\/p>\n

The NBA previously played in London from 2011-19 at The 02.<\/p>\n

A New Jersey Nets team featuring Brook Lopez and Deron Williams beat a Toronto Raptors squad including DeMar DeRozan and Andrea Bargnani 116-103 on March 4, 2011.<\/p>\n

The Boston Celtics<\/a>, Denver Nuggets<\/a>, Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> and Pacers also played at the 02 before the London Game series ended.<\/p>\n

Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Thunder and Pacers is Thursday in Oklahoma City. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London wants to host future NBA games. So does Manchester, which features a new state-of-the-art arena in northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[12048,748,1936,393,2915,65027,4884,51780,462,65024,13698,257,14251,2465,65028,25229,12056,65022,65023,65021,22138,65026,14252,65020,16,15,65025],"class_list":{"0":"post-152629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-co-op-live","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-exclusive","13":"tag-game-1","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-indiana-pacers","16":"tag-interview","17":"tag-is-nba-returning-to-london","18":"tag-lebron-james","19":"tag-london","20":"tag-london-mayor","21":"tag-manchester","22":"tag-mark-tatum","23":"tag-mayor-of-london","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-nba-europe","26":"tag-nba-expansion","27":"tag-nba-finals","28":"tag-nfl","29":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","30":"tag-sadiq-khan","31":"tag-the-02","32":"tag-uk","33":"tag-united-kingdom","34":"tag-when-is-nba-playing-in-manchester"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114614930386925079","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}