By Stathis Trapezanlidis/ info@eurohoops.net
Alba Berlin and Berlin Basketball Federation formalized yesterday (29/5) the cooperation with Beijing Basketball Federation. The agreement on cooperation comes in the broader context of the twinning of the two cities – and the two countries – which dates back 20 years.
Alba is the club that was chosen to be a sporting ambassador for Berlin in Beijing. As pointed out – among others – Dr. Axel Schweitzer, member of Alba’s supervisory board “the basketball craze in China is huge and there are more than 300 millions athletes. The passion for the sports is as big as in Berlin and our goal is to learn from each other and get better. We connect the two cities on many levels: from politics to the professional clubs and associations. to universities and schools”
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The agreement between the two sides was formalized in Beijing, where the governing mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, Alba’s vice-president, Henning Harnisch and Axel Schweitzer met the vice-president of Beijing Basketball Federation, Yin Guanghuan. The signatories also included Stephan Herwig, chairman of the Berlin Basketball Association.
In this way Alba Berlin makes an opening to the Chinese market aiming at further development of the brand name of the club. That’s why Alba already created its own website in Chinese and has an account also on Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter). In 2011 Alba visited China for exhibition games, which also included several other side activities (basketball camps at schools, tournament, streetball tournament).
This collaboration of Alba with basketball federation of Beijing joins in another one which was announced a few months ago between Bayern Munich and Oklahoma City Thunder. They are indications of the German clubs’ interest for further development both for themselves and for their league. We must not forget that four times NBA champions, San Antonio Spurs, will face on the 8th of October Alba in Berlin …