NEW YORK (AFP) — The NBA will explore the creation of a new professional league in Europe in partnership with world governing body FIBA, National Basketball Association (NBA) commissioner Adam Silver announced Thursday.

“Had discussions around potential opportunities in Europe literally for decades. But we feel now is the time to move to that next stage. We’re ready to go to the next stage and that’s to explore a potential league in Europe with FIBA as our partners,” Silver said.

Silver indicated that current discussions would see the creation of a European league with 12 permanent franchises, regardless of performance, and four clubs that would be subject to annual changes.

“But this could change” as talks progress, Silver said.

“We want continuity (in the new league) for certain clubs because... it provides an incentive to build new arenas, build a brand,” Silver said.

Neither Silver nor FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis, who was at the New York news conference, would elaborate more on the project, Silver noting, “nothing has been decided yet.”

The subject was a major topic of two days of team owner meetings in New York that concluded Thursday.

“Club owners have expressed their enthusiastic support for the idea of continuing the exploration,” Silver said.

This new NBA-backed league would pose a threat to the Euroleague, which is now considered the second-best basketball league in the world after the NBA.

“Basketball is the second-largest sport in Europe,” Silver said.

“Hundreds of millions of fans. But there’s a considerable gap between the interest in the sport and its development, compared to how we manage the elite here in North America.”

Asked about talks with Euroleague, Zagklis said, “Our role as an international federation is to unify the basketball ecosystem as much as possible. We’ve tried to do this in the past, we’re continuing, and we will continue.”

Silver said the project was in an exploratory stage, indicating there were still sponsors and details to be confirmed.

“We wanted to have open and direct conversations with stakeholders, not secret discussions,” Silver said.

Media reports have said PSG, Manchester City, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Fenerbahce have been approached by the NBA about joining the future league.

Clubs would be controlled half by the NBA and half by investors with some reports saying the price for a team in the new league would be at least $500 million.

“We want to assess the level of interest from existing clubs,” Silver said, some of which “are very strong global brands,” in part because many are football giants such as Real Madrid and Barcelona.