The Business of Football: Could London’s NBA Europe franchise head to the Orient?

American writer Mark Twain once said there is no such thing as a new idea. They are just a bunch of old ideas that we put into a “mental kaleidoscope… then give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations”.

I would be surprised if Leyton Orient’s new owner, David Gandler, has ever done anything as old-fashioned as play with a kaleidoscope, but he certainly knows how to repackage good ideas from the past and present them in new and interesting ways.

His first big success came when he helped to sell DramaFever, a streaming service that specialised in Korean dramas dubbed into Spanish, to Warner Bros. His second was when he took FuboTV, a sports streaming platform that looks a lot like an old cable TV bundle, to the New York Stock Exchange.

And now, for his next twist of the kaleidoscope, the 50-year-old entrepreneur wants to turn Orient into a multi-sports enterprise along the lines of Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.

Gandler’s investment in the League One side was announced on Friday, with the American buying a 78.55 per cent stake in their new parent company. A day later, with Gandler watching, they beat fellow promotion-chasers Wycombe Wanderers 1-o to maintain their hold on a place in the play-offs with one game to play.

Orient have been on an upward trajectory ever since local-lad-made-good Nigel Travis bought them in 2017. They had just been relegated to the fifth tier of English football and were reeling from three years of calamitous mismanagement under Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti.

There have been two promotions since then, several American investors have joined the gang, and improvements have been made to Orient’s cramped but charming Brisbane Road ground. But Orient have continued to lose money, which is why Travis had been looking for further help when a mutual acquaintance connected him and Gandler before Christmas.

So far, so what, right? English football is full of American investors who have seen Ted Lasso and believe their entrepreneurial skills and can-do attitude is the secret sauce we have been clutching for since the late 19th century.

Gandler hinted at some of that on Monday, too, when he spoke to the media about why he has invested in Orient. But he also said he wants to try something the likes of Manchester United and Newcastle United attempted in the late 20th century, and Bristol City are still trying to pull off now with their football/rugby/basketball partnership.

Asked if his first experience of European club ownership with French second-tier side Paris FC had given him any ideas about creating a multi-club group, perhaps focused on player-trading, Gandler could not have been clearer.

“When I stepped into Paris FC (in 2022), it was the only club I was interested in because if you want to succeed, you need to put as much effort as you can into one project,” he told The Athletic.

“Others may disagree, but my personal view is that (multi-club ownership) is a very difficult thing to make successful.

“I believe that a single-city, multi-sport project makes a lot more sense, for various reasons. You can have one management team, one medical staff, one commercial team, so there’s a lot of leverage there. Training facilities can be developed to create value.

“That de-risks a football club. I don’t see myself working with any other club. This is the one and we need to make it as great a place as we can for everyone.”

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First interview ✅

Start your week by hearing from the O’s new majority shareholder David Gandler 🗣️#LOFC #OneOrient pic.twitter.com/sSJjqD1hKl

— Leyton Orient FC (@leytonorientfc) April 28, 2025

So, which other sports are we talking about?

Well, as The Athletic has reported, the National Basketball Association has spotted that Europe quite likes basketball, but the continent’s best teams are in cities such as Athens, Belgrade and Lithuania’s Kaunas, as opposed to easier-to-visit and wealthier places such as London. NBA Europe, the American league’s proposed colonial expedition, is intended to fix that, which is where Orient may come in.

“Great question,” said club chief executive Mark Devlin very kindly when The Athletic suggested the new stadium Orient are looking for could also become the home of London’s NBA Europe franchise.

“The creation of a sports hub or sports village is really attractive to the area. Where you would put it is another matter, given the acreage required, but bringing a number of sports together, such as basketball, is a possibility.

“Some of the discussions we’re having at the moment are at the very early stages, but rule nothing out or in. York City’s stadium has an indoor arena beside it, for instance. So it’s definitely an attraction and there is demand for basketball in London, there’s raw talent here.

“There’s no reason why, with some creativity, an indoor arena, beside a major stadium, isn’t a possibility.”

Devlin added that Orient have been in talks with their local authority, the London borough of Waltham Forest, for almost a year about a site for a new, 17,000 to 20,0000-capacity stadium, with room for an arena, too.

One possibility is New Spitalfields Market, a fruit-and-veg market only a 10-minute walk from Orient’s current home. There have been plans to move it to a new site further east in Dagenham for years, which would free up a lot of space in Orient’s backyard.

Unfortunately, it is also within sight of the City of London, so there may be more lucrative uses for its 31 acres than football, basketball and whatever else Devlin, Gandler and Travis have in mind.

So, while Orient’s brave new world may not be in Leyton, it will be elsewhere in the borough and it should involve more than football.

And here is a prediction: they will not be the only football club to try what Sir John Hall memorably attempted in the 1990s when he bought Newcastle United, rugby’s Newcastle Falcons, basketball’s Newcastle Eagles and ice hockey team the Durham Wasps and tried to create a “Barcelona of the North”.

Like Twain’s coloured pieces of glass, it is an idea that just needs to be shaken up and looked at in a fresh light.

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Motion denied

From one old idea whose time has come again to another, with one of this column’s regular updates on the imminent arrival of an independent regulator for the professional men’s game in England.

As previously reported, the new Labour government picked up the Football Governance Bill — which the Conservative government failed to get through parliament before last summer’s election — tweaked it a bit and reintroduced it within weeks of being voted into office.

It completed its passage through the House of Lords, the UK’s second chamber, last month and is now working its way through the House of Commons. It was debated there for the first time on Monday and will now be sent to a committee of MPs for closer scrutiny.

A little like the Premier League this season, there has not been much jeopardy, as Labour won 411 of the House of Commons’ 650 seats, which means it should not lose too many votes. But they should be closer than the vote on the Conservative motion, which was tabled before Monday’s debate, to stop the bill in its tracks.

The motion said the house should ditch it “because, notwithstanding the need for financial sustainability in the English football pyramid, the regulator proposed to be established by the bill would damage the independence of English football, particularly given the government’s proposed choice for chairman and because the bill will increase the regulatory burden on clubs — particularly lower league clubs — leading to increased ticket prices…”

The sentence continued, but you get the idea.

To be fair to the motion’s sponsors, who included former sports minster Stuart Andrew, the government’s proposed chairman, media rights expert and Labour donor David Kogan, is an issue worthy of further scrutiny. But that is already scheduled for next week.

The rest of it, though, sounded a little, well, cynical, particularly when you remember this bill is the product of consultation the Conservatives started and repeatedly backed, and is also very similar to a bill they tried to introduce last year and included in their election manifesto.

“I genuinely think that this is an excellent bill: it is considered and it will achieve the objectives we want,” is how Andrew put it in May.

“I hope that whoever wins the election on 4 July will see this as a good bill to crack on with, because it is important for the future of football and, crucially, for the future of football fans.”

With a recommendation like that, perhaps the 342-70 score for the government in Monday’s vote should not be such a shock. Although, the fact that 50 of the Conservatives’ own MPs failed to vote for the motion is a tad embarrassing.

Interestingly, Conservative MP Dame Caroline Dinenage voted with the government. She is the chair of the select committee that will grill Kogan next Wednesday. Perhaps she is keeping her ammo dry.

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Gillingham’s ills, Hull’s headaches

Assuming the bill and Kogan swerve any further flak, the regulator should be up and running by next season, although it will take a year or two to be fully functional.

While many MPs in Monday’s debate seemed to want it to lower ticket prices, fix VAR, let fans have a pint while they watch a game, deliver World Cup glory and solve every other problem with English football, its remit will be limited to ensuring clubs are run sustainably, giving fans a bigger voice in how they are run and protecting club heritage.

Of these responsibilities, the first will be the most contentious as it will involve vetting owners, finding a fairer distribution of the game’s wealth and checking that clubs are paying their bills on time.

A week rarely goes by in football when the size of this task is not spelled out. As I type this sentence, League One’s Reading remain in limbo, Morecambe, currently of League Two but already relegated to the National League, face a very uncertain future, and fans at Championship side Sheffield Wednesday and Swindon Town (League Two) continue to protest against their respective owners. And that is before we even think about the various campaigns against high ticket prices in the Premier League.

But there are also grounds for concern at Gillingham and Hull City.

The former has been a fractious place this season as the club have struggled in League Two. Thankfully, results have improved on the pitch of late, but the row in the boardroom has rumbled all the way to the High Court in London, where Gillingham’s majority owner Brad Galinson and the club itself have filed a claim against former owner Paul Scally.

Galinson, a Florida-based property investor, claims Scally, who still owns 30 per cent of the club, breached their sale purchase agreement in 2022 with several “fraudulent misrepresentations” about the state of the club. These include, the claim says, failing to disclose loans to club directors, alleged furlough scheme fraud, missing pension payments and various allegations of misconduct.

Neither Galinson nor Scally responded to requests for comment, but Scally has previously denied any wrongdoing, telling the BBC in December that the allegations are “bizarre” and “grossly wrong, grossly unfair and grossly misleading”.

Hull City’s most immediate issue is hopefully resolved by the time you read this, as their players will have received the monthly wages they were expecting on Monday.

Non-playing staff at the Championship club were paid on the 28th of the month, as usual, but the players received a message to say “the minor delay is a result of an overseas payment not yet being cleared into the club’s account”. They were assured that the money would be in their accounts on Wednesday.

Banking delays happen, of course, but it is hardly ideal preparation for Saturday’s season finale at Portsmouth. As things stand, Hull are 22nd and in the relegation zone, one point behind Luton Town, Preston North End and Derby County, and two behind Stoke City. A draw could be enough to keep them up, but a win would guarantee it, as Derby play Stoke.

It has been a bumpy ride ever since Turkish businessman Acun Ilicali bought the club in January 2022. Following heavy investment in the team, Hull narrowly missed the play-offs last season, but this campaign has been a real slog.

Liam Rosenior was sacked as manager last May, but his replacement, Tim Walter, only lasted six months before he was given the boot. Former Reading boss Ruben Selles has steadied the ship slightly, but defeat to Derby last weekend plunged them back into the drop zone.

In less surprising news than their wages being late, the players were also told over the weekend that the player of the season awards scheduled for Tuesday evening had been cancelled.

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Torquay’s turnaround 

Enough with the tales of woe. Let us finish on a cheery note.

Torquay United could be forgiven for feeling a little sorry for themselves, having been beaten to the National League South title and automatic promotion by just two goals after tying with Truro City on 89 points.

But they still have a good shout of advancement via the play-offs and they are in a far better place than they were last year when a 10-point deduction for entering administration sent them to their lowest finish in the league pyramid, 18th in the sixth tier, since 1927.

However, from that nadir, a recovery began.

First, the administrators sold the club to a consortium of local businessmen and the supporters’ trust. Second, the new owners rebuilt bridges with the community, boosting the club’s gates. And third, they brought in EFL legend Neil Warnock as a football advisor.

And this week, they ticked off another milestone as they fulfilled the terms of the company voluntary arrangement (CVA) they agreed when they took over the club. A CVA is an agreement to pay off a proportion of a company’s total debts so it can emerge from bankruptcy protection and start trading again.

“When we entered administration, we were at the lowest league position in the club’s history and many feared for our future,” said club co-chairman and consortium leader Michael Westcott.

“But thanks to the tireless work of our supporters, players, staff and everyone behind the scenes, we’ve not only stabilised, we’ve thrived.”

While Torquay’s survival is clearly a cause for celebration, the football industry should not be too proud of the fact it had to call in business recovery group Begbies Traynor to save another historic club.

“Football clubs are at the centre of the community, so they not only matter on a personal and emotional level, but a commercial one, too,” explains Julie Palmer, a regional managing partner of Begbies Traynor, who worked on Torquay’s rescue.

“In an administration, it is the surrounding businesses reliant on the club that really feel the monetary impact. From Wigan to Bournemouth, we have seen that it is this halo effect that makes the survival of these clubs so important.

“Fortunately, at the moment, there seems to be a healthy amount of interest from investors for clubs, but that doesn’t always transfer down the tiers. The emotional part of football has previously attracted investment. And this has been a blessing and a curse as owners, seeking no monetary return, financially stretch the club to climb the pyramid.

“With no guarantee of success, that financial stretching is coming back to bite some clubs. However, the lure, history and emotion of the English game is continually attracting investors to capture these distressed clubs, restructure and revive them, with the aim of replicating the success of Bournemouth, going from administration to Premier League in six years.

“In Torquay’s case, the new owners and everyone involved have worked tirelessly to turn the club around. Their story should give hope for other clubs that are starting to see signs of distress and are considering whether to look for support.

“Fulfilling the terms of the CVA is the final piece of the puzzle for exiting an administration process. It will mean the club has more financial freedom, but also greater security and control over its own future. This is a very significant and positive step.”

(Top photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

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