Barça have a basketball department and a few others do. Real, Bayern, Monaco, Sporting, Benfica, Porto, Fenerbahçe, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, Partizan Belgrade, and Red Star Belgrade all compete with them in the top-flight EuroLeague.
The sport isn’t as big as football in Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, etc but those clubs feel it’s worthwhile to compete in.
It will bring in a chunk of revenue for those clubs, just as the diversification around the Etihad with hotel, restaurant and shopping complex will do. CFG also owns shares in the Goals cage footie business
Why not add a basketball team to the ever-growing CFG monolith?