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The NBA Playbook: How IndyCar Can Learn from Basketball's Global Expansion Strategy

This piece is in collaboration with the team at FanAmp, who wrote a great piece about IndyCar Toronto: What This Race Represents to Fans Outside the US.

Today, the NBA generates over $8 billion annually, with international revenue representing nearly 20% of total league income. For IndyCar, wrestling with its own global expansion challenges, the NBA's methodical approach offers an approach in sustainable international growth.

The Localization Strategy: Personalities as Expansion Engines

The NBA's breakthrough flowed from a simple realisation: global expansion lives in the hearts of star personalities creating authentic local connections. The league invested heavily in making athletes cultural ambassadors through paid camps, exhibitions, and appearance tours in their home countries.

When Yao Ming played for the Houston Rockets, the NBA sent him to China for paid basketball camps, organised exhibition games featuring him, and created content specifically around his cultural bridge between America and China. Tony Parker became the face of NBA expansion in France through similar initiatives. Paid appearances, youth camps, and exhibition events that made basketball feel authentically French.

IndyCar possesses international stars like Alex Palou from Spain and Canada's Devlin DeFrancesco, creating untapped potential as expansion catalysts. The NBA model suggests organising paid driver camps and exhibitions in these athletes' home countries during the offseason. Palou could host driving clinics in Barcelona, DeFrancesco could lead promotional events across Canadian cities between Toronto races. These revenue-generating programs build authentic local fanbases while compensating drivers for their ambassadorial work.

The Exhibition Game Playbook: Testing Waters Without Commitment

The NBA's extensive use of international exhibition games before committing to regular season games abroad created sophisticated market research wrapped in entertainment. These preseason matchups delivered concrete data about local appetite, logistical capabilities, and revenue potential. The success of exhibitions in London, Mexico City, and throughout Asia laid the foundation for regular-season international games.

IndyCar could embrace this exact framework through special exhibition events during the offseason in key international markets. These shorter format races, driver showcases, or karting events featuring IndyCar stars would generate revenue and data while building relationships with local promoters, media, and sponsors.

Toronto's success illuminates this path perfectly. The race draws fans from across North America through accessibility and convenience, becoming a lab for understanding international fan behaviour. The NBA's exhibition model points toward similar testing grounds in London, Barcelona, or Tokyo, events that create revenue streams and market intelligence simultaneously.

The Development Pipeline: Creating Long-Term Investment

The NBA's investment in international development programs transformed basketball from an American export into a truly global sport with deep roots in dozens of countries. Basketball Without Borders, NBA Academies, and Junior NBA programs created pathways for international talent while building local basketball infrastructure.

IndyCar's international expansion flows beyond deciding where to race toward cultivating motorsports talent and fandom globally. Partnership programs with international racing series, driver development initiatives in key markets, and esports competitions could introduce younger international audiences to IndyCar without massive physical event costs.

The Revenue Model: Patience Creates Premium

The NBA's international revenue model has evolved gradually from simple broadcast licensing to comprehensive partnerships that include merchandise, digital content, and local events. This patient approach commanded premium pricing as demand grew organically.

IndyCar's current pressure to immediately monetise international interest risks hastily organised races that compromise quality or accessibility. The NBA model builds value through scarcity and quality, making IndyCar content genuinely exclusive yet extraordinarily high-quality when available creates desire rather than saturation.

The Long Game: Infrastructure Before Spectacle

Today's NBA generates billions internationally because it spent decades building infrastructure: broadcast partnerships, local offices, talent development programs, and cultural connections. The spectacular international games and global superstars flow from this foundation.

IndyCar's path to sustainable global expansion follows the same trajectory. The series should invest now in broadcast-quality content (which it has started to do through Fox Sports), international talent development, and cultural connections that will pay dividends over the next decade. The goal is not to host races in London or Tokyo by 2027, but to create the conditions where those races become inevitable by 2035.

As drivers like Palou observe, genuine appetite exists for IndyCar's unique brand of racing internationally. The question shifts beyond whether demand exists to whether IndyCar possesses the patience to build sustainable global infrastructure before pursuing spectacular international events. The NBA's playbook suggests that the reward for this patience creates not just international revenue, but global relevance that lasts generations.