Basketball Africa League (BAL) president Amadou Gallo Fall has said that contrary to a Semafor report, the league is not yet switching to a franchise model.
Citing investors and executives who spoke to them on condition of anonymity, Semafor reported that the league – which is currently run by the NBA Africa in partnership with FIBA – was actively seeking financial backers to move to a franchise model.
Their article claimed the BAL was hoping to have its initial set of franchises ready by the end of 2025.
When asked about it by ESPN at the BAL 2025 opening week in Morocco, Fall stopped short of confirming or denying that the league could switch to a franchise model at some point in the future. However, he said that the change was not presently imminent.
Fall said: “There’s no question that we remain very focused on continuing to build the Basketball Africa League… We are committed to establishing this league into one of the best professional basketball leagues for years to come.
“We are constantly looking at ways to improve, but there is no decision to change the format currently. We want to focus on continuing to improve.
“Obviously, the article you [ESPN] talk about is not from us, but we remain focused on continuing to build our league in partnership with FIBA.”
He stressed the importance of a league that focuses on developing African talent first and foremost rather than simply measuring itself against the NBA’s business operations in the US.
“We are part of the NBA ecosystem. We want to make sure that in Africa, we offer an opportunity for talent – the immense amount of talent that exists from Africa in the diaspora – to come and play basketball here at the highest level. In the process, we want to build an industry around our game,” Fall said.
If the BAL moved to a franchise model, teams would be brought under the league’s control in a more similar model to what exists in the NBA. Currently, the league does not own its teams. An upside of the existing model is that it allows continuity for Africa’s pre-existing sporting powerhouses.
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