Basketball

Sports Digest: NBA reaches agreement to create arenas in China

The NBA has formed a multibillion-dollar joint venture with Anschutz Entertainment Group to design and develop about 12 multipurpose arenas in major Chinese cities for a future affiliated basketball league. NBA commissioner David Stern did not say when the plan would be starting, or where the buildings would be located. The Los Angeles Times reported that the NBA and AEG would equally own arenas that will hold 17,000 spectators, with primary funding coming from the Chinese government and Chinese banks. The project was announced yesterday in a news conference at the AGE-owned O2 Arena in London, where the New Jersey Nets and Miami Heat played a preseason game. AEG president and CEO Timothy J. Leiweke said it could take decades to complete the project. "We think of this over the next 20 years, not the next year or two," he said, adding some would be new arenas and others would be created by renovating existing facilities. Leiweke downplayed the idea that the arenas are being built based on a guarantee of having an NBA-style league in China. But eventually - and Stern didn't offer a timetable - the arenas will house some type of affiliated basketball league, he told the Times.

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