Nba Has Global Attention League Plans To Continue Big-Time Marketing Overseas

The National Basketball Association wants to rule the world.

Already the model of professional sports league success, the NBA enters its 51st season Friday laying the groundwork to expand its markets outside of North America.

While the league still has some problems on the homefront - Michael Jordan’s soon-to-come retirement and a simmering labor problem - it is poised to begin a full-court press to become the most popular sport on the planet.

“There are a lot more worlds to conquer,” said Rick Welts, the NBA’s chief marketing officer.

With nine offices outside North America and television broadcasts in 191 countries, the NBA’s effort has begun. It estimates that 10 to 15 percent of the $3.09 billion in NBA licensed merchandise sales last year came outside the U.S.

With offices opening in Italy and Germany next year, the league said it wants to increase that percentage to a third.

“This is a league that is a global brand and looking to become an even stronger global brand,” said Jeffrey Pollack, president and publisher of the Sports Business Daily, an industry newsletter. “The NBA understands what brand building is all about and practices it with a great deal of sophistication.”

It’s worked in Europe, where it’s common to see children wearing Chicago Bulls jerseys. For the McDonald’s Championship in Paris this month, thousands of basketball-crazed fans welcomed Jordan and the Bulls with the kind of reception usually reserved for rock stars.

“It was extraordinary,” Welts said. “What we’re doing works.”

Also, some of the NBA’s players are now household names throughout the world, making fortunes for themselves in endorsements and furthering the league with the publicity. Every time Michael Jordan appears in a Nike Inc. commercial or Shaquille O’Neal tries to sell Pepsi, they also are helping to sell NBA paraphernalia.

Even with the popularity surge, the league said it has no plans to put teams outside North America. It just wants to sell more T-shirts.

“To go and plant the NBA flag, especially in a place like Europe, that’s not a terrific idea,” Welts said. There already are several popular basketball leagues there, he said.