By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Usually the assembly of Euroleague’s commercial assets board doesn’t provide big headlines, but this time things were different. Euroleague wants to use its Final Four in London as the stepping stone for an expansion to the UK and also doesn’t like the idea of national team games during its season.
As the official press release states after the proposed rules changes: “On the subject of new markets, a proposed strategy to invest in the United Kingdom was presented that seeks to grow the Euroleague Basketball fan base there, to deliver a world class basketball events, to source local partners, to increase media presence, to introduce the CSR program One Team and, finally, to seek a competitive UK-based team for Euroleague Basketball competition. Plans were shown for the Turkish Airlines Final Four fan zone that will take place over the Final Four weekend at Trafalgar Square in London from May 10 to 12”.
It’s not the first time that Euroleague tries to expand in UK market. Its first and last until now effort, however, with the London Towers, as the club was named, was ill fated as the team registered a pitiful 0-14 record in the competition back in 2001.
Also, Euroleague became the second pro league after Spanish Liga Endesa that declares its concerns about the proposed new FIBA global calendar: “Finally, members reviewed the new World Calendar Competition Formats that FIBA approved recently. While agreeing that having national teams play official games locally was a positive move, the assembly expressed disagreement with the timing of those games as they would interrupt the clubs’ competition calendar. They also voiced concern that the expanded national team calendar would not include all of the world’s best players and would not allow for athletes to rest”.