The NBA's proposed new European league would distribute hundreds of millions of dollars per year to its franchises, George Aivazoglou, one of the league's senior executives, told AFP.

The NBA Europe project, which is due to be launched in 2027 in partnership with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), has come under intense scrutiny with respect to its financial viability.

Franchises would need to stump up between "500 million and one billion" dollars to take part, and in return they would become "partners" in the NBA Europe project, said Aivazoglou, the NBA's managing director for Europe and the Middle East.

Almost all top-level European basketball sides are losing money, although the NBA model envisages franchises – many newly created ones – set up in major cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, and Madrid.

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These are cities where the sporting environment, largely dominated by soccer, is already saturated.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said two weeks ago that they had received "record interest" from potential franchises, whose bids to join the new league are due at the end of the month.

As well as FIBA, the NBA has been in discussions with EuroLeague Basketball, which organizes the continent's top basketball competition – the equivalent of soccer's Champions League – which was first held in 1958.

The NBA is pitching its proposed new league as a huge money-spinner for potential investors – despite their mammoth initial outlay.

"The partner becomes a shareholder. There is asset value there," said Aivazoglou.

"This is the NBA's league in Europe and this will be an asset that is worth in the tens of billions of dollars," he said.

An inside source at Qatar Sports Investment, the owners of the Paris Saint-Germain football team who have been approached by the NBA over creating a franchise, told AFP in January that the initial investment required to join was exorbitant and prohibitive.

The NBA has pledged to invest three billion dollars into the project to help cover initial losses, however.

Once the bidding process ends on June 29, the NBA "will move forward with next steps that could include announcements from there."