Burnley director involved in bid for London basketball team - report

A Burnley shareholder is part of a consortium exploring a move into basketball.

That’s according to The Athletic, who claim Clarets director Dave Checketts has teamed up Tottenham owners, the Lewis Family, to invest in the proposed NBA Europe league.

It’s suggested the consortium is interested in bidding for the London franchise in the new competition, which is set to launch in 2027.

London has been earmarked as one of the league’s 12 target cities, alongside Manchester, Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich, Athens, Istanbul, Rome and Milan.

Battersea Power Station has been mooted as a potential location for a basketball arena in the capital.

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Checketts, who came on board with Burnley in 2021, has previous history working in basketball, having become the president and general manager of the Utah Jazz aged just 28, making him the youngest chief executive in NBA history.

He then spent a year as the general manager of NBA international, working to increase the league’s presence around the world, before joining the New York Knicks in 1991.

Also part of the proposed bid is the Eccles family, who also have involvement with Burnley and Alan Pace’s other side Espanyol.

In April 2025, Checketts and the Eccles family teamed up to launch £1bn private equity joint venture Cynosure, aimed at funding global sports investments.

In November of the same year, ALK Capital - Pace’s investment firm - announced Cynosure had made a “significant strategic investment” in its football operations.

Pace and Checketts are long-time partners, having worked together with MLS side Real Salt Lake just under 20 years ago.