A £10 million investment to promote basketball in Great Britain has been announced as part of a groundbreaking collaboration between the U.K. government and the NBA, Basketball England reported on Wednesday.
The goal of the initiative is to take the game to communities throughout the UK in order to get more people active and involved in the sport.
Basketball is one of the U.K.’s fastest-growing sports, the second-most-popular team sport for young people, behind soccer, and reaches diverse communities nationwide.
The NBA is one of the world’s most recognizable brands, with a growing presence in the U.K. NBA fandom among adults in the country has risen by 24% over the last three years, and the league is now the top U.S. sports organization among Gen Z in the U.K.
As part of the comprehensive plan, the U.K. government has committed to invest £400 million over the next four years on its Community Sport Facilities Program, which includes £5 million in the first year for basketball and basketball-led multi-sport facilities in England.
This will be matched by a planned £5 million of investment from the NBA into grassroots development and fan engagement programs through 2028, expanding the NBA’s existing programming that reaches more than 50,000 youth across the U.K. annually, according to Gov.uk.
In addition, the NBA will play regular-season games in London this coming January and in Manchester in 2027, which will mark the first NBA games in the U.K. since 2019 and the league’s first regular-season game ever in Manchester.
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