The new owners of London’s main basketball team have the backing of Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to build a multi-hundred-million-pound arena that would be the city’s first purpose-built stadium for the sport.
London Lions, based in Stratford in east London, are aiming to build a 10,000-seater venue located centrally as part of a turnaround project after being saved from administration last year by Lithuanian sports club owner Tomas Okmanas.
“To make London Lions the top, to play very competitively and re-enter the top European leagues, it needs to have a purpose built arena,” Okmanas told the FT. “It’s a natural step.”
Plans are at an early stage and it will probably take years for the venue to be built, but Okmanas has pledged that his ownership group will finance the project while the city will help to identify land for the site.
The team currently plays at the Copper Box Arena, one of the venues at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Although it remains less dominant than football, the popularity of recreational basketball is on the rise. More than 1.2mn children and young people play the sport every week, according to figures from Basketball England.
Okmanas, a Lithuanian entrepreneur, is the co-founder of Nord Security and the Tesonet holding group that acquired the London Lions in August last year after previous owner 777 Partners ran into financial difficulties. Tesonet also co-owns Lithuania’s top team Žalgiris Kaunas, which also competes in EuroLeague, the highest level of men’s European competition.
London mayor Khan said he was “thrilled” to support the Lions in their “ambitious vision to establish a state of the art basketball facility in our city”.
He said: “This venue can be major new hub for basketball in the capital, creating positive opportunities for young people, attracting new fans to the sport and hosting more events which would provide a significant boost to the economy.”
The backing of the city will give the team key support amid a push to build off the sport’s rising popularity.
Former Lions owners Miami investment firm 777 Partners had built up a collection of sports assets, ranging from Italian Serie A side Genoa and other football clubs to a stake in the now-defunct British Basketball League.
However, 777 called in restructuring firm B Riley Advisory Services in May last year following fraud accusations, which it denied, and the unravelling of its reinsurance funding structure.
At the time, 777 had been looking to buy English Premier League football club Everton FC, but the deal collapsed.
“In the UK, basketball is a growing team sport, but it’s not number one,” Okmanas said, adding “the engagement of the fan community is increasing”.
While Okmanas acknowledged that he would face regulatory barriers if the Lions were to be elevated to the same league as the Lithuanian team, he said it would be a “good problem” to have.
The club plans to return to the EuroCup, the second tier, but aims to climb into Europe’s most elite basketball competition in time.
The London Lions women’s team won the EuroCup for the first time in the 2023-24 season, defeating Beşiktaş of Turkey in the final and becoming the first British team to win a European title.