The American basketball competition, the NBA, will help weather the global financial crisis by cutting the number of pre-season games in Europe this year.
This year the league is playing only four games in four European cities, down from seven in six cities in 2007.
Meanwhile the weakness in the U.S. economy is being blamed for lower season-ticket sales ahead of the league's 63rd regular season starting this month.
The NBA has already begun searching for cost savings and is revisiting operational budgets set as recently as August.