East Asia Super League (EASL) seeks to become the premier basketball league in Asia, with its inaugural home-and-away pan-regional league set to debut in October 2022.
EASL CEO and co-founder Matt Beyer spoke with The Macau Post Daily yesterday morning during an online interview via Zoom, explaining that EASL’s concept is “to elevate the level of basketball in Asia and to offer fans a premier basketball product and to be a globally relevant basketball league with its home in Asia”.
Beyer pointed out that the upcoming first season will last a total of six months from October 2022 to March of 2023 and will thereafter be “on an annual basis”. The league will feature eight teams from “Japan’s B. League, Korea KBL, Philippines PBA and the Chinese Taipei P. LEAGUE+”, according to an EASL statement.
The statement added that a new professional franchise called the Bay Area Chun Yu Phoenixes, which will include players from Hong Kong, mainland China, Macau, and Chinese Taipei, will represent “Greater China”. Since its formation, Beyer noted that EASL has been in touch with different players from Macau, adding that many players from the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Chinese Taipei are seeking an opportunity to play in the team.
The eight teams will be divided into two groups, with the top two teams from each being eligible to play in “The Final Four” and championship matches in 2023.
Each team will consist of a 12-man roster, with “two foreign players and an additional Asian player”. Beyer elaborated that the foreign players could be from various places, but will “mostly likely be from North America or Europe”, while the Asian import player “could be from anywhere around the region”. The top three winning teams stand to win cash prizes of US$1 million, US$500,000 and US$250,000 respectively.
Beyer said that he expects the league to be “a wildly entertaining basketball product for fans all around”, adding that the expected viewership for its first season to be “230 million people”. Beyer also said that EASL is looking to be “the strongest league in Asia”, as well as having “one of the top three basketball teams in the world” by 2025.
Beyer noted that fans should expect “the best basketball that’s ever been seen in Asia, adding that “we’re presenting Asian basketball and Asian heroes in a way that they haven’t presented in the current domestic leagues”.
Given the global COVID-19 pandemic situation, Beyer was also asked by The Macau Post Daily about the measures that EASL will take given that the games will occur in different parts of the world, to which he said that each team’s travelling party must be vaccinated as a “basic requirement”, while detailed travel requirements and the local laws and regulations to ensure a safe experience will be explored.
Moreover, with quarantine requirements set across Macau, mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, The Macau Post Daily also asked Beyer about the training arrangements planned for the Bay Area Chun Yu Phoenixes. Beyer said that the team’s base will be in Hong Kong, adding that he was optimistic that sometime in the middle of next year, the three Chinese regions’ quarantine requirements will be loosened. Bayer emphasised that “it’s really important that we look at the future in a positive and proactive way”.
This undated handout photo provided by the East Asia Super League (EASL) shows the league’s co-founder and CEO Matt Beyer posing for a portrait.
This file photo shows the two opposing teams during EASL’s weeklong tournament, “The Terrific 12”, in September 2019.
