By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
As officially announced by Dreamland Gran Canaria on May 12, the Spanish team won’t be playing in next season’s Turkish Airlines EuroLeague despite earning it on the court after winning the 2022-23 7DAYS EuroCup in the final against Turk Telekom Ankara.
In the press conference organized to explain the reasons behind this decision, the club’s president and former player Sitapha Savané said that playing the EuroLeague would have been “irresponsibility disguised as bravery”. The 45-year-old also commented that “the decision made has been the most difficult of this time due to the expectation of the team, club, and fans of playing this competition again”.
The Senegalese-Spanish president went on to comment about the economic reasons which led to skipping the EuroLeague. “If we played the Euroleague, we would have earned between 350,000 and 500,000 euros, when expenses rose by over 4 million”, he said comparing it to the Canarian football side UD Las Palmas, which will get way more after being promoted to the first division. “Basketball is not football. Our friends from UD Las Palmas will charge between 50-70 million for LaLiga games”, Savané added.
Sending an official statement to its season-tickets holders on June 6, Gran Canaria previously announced that the prices for those tickets would have been increased by 70% rate if Jaka Lakovic’s side would have ended up playing in the best European competition.