Euroleague to be a closed league

June 25, 2008

In an article in the French newspaper L’Equipe, the possibility of a closed Euroleague has been evoked and reportedly is very close to happening.

On the 7th of July, the ULEB has its general reunion in Berlin where one of the points will be the qualification modus for the Euroleague. And according to sources close to the organization, the ULEB will qualify certain teams only on economic and structural criteria. Some teams will still enter the competition after sportive results. The number of teams in each category is not yet defined.

The goal of the Euroleague is to have a 10,000 seat arena minimum from the 2009-10 on. There will be exceptions for teams that have a minimum of 5,000 seats in their arena but fixed plans must be in place to build a new arena within a period of three years. If these changes are approved on July 7, it will be a revolution in the European sports scene as no other European competition grants fixed places for teams in the main competition.

Such a decision would result in lots of European powerhouses having to move to new arenas. It would mean the end of such traditional spaces as Tivoli in Ljubljana, Hale in Kaunas, and Pionir in Belgrade. Some cities already have new arenas. But with this decision, the construction process must be accelerated in the other locations in order to remain eligible for the top competition in European basketball.

The French teams are in shock, as these changes mean that France will lose one spot in the competition. Additionally, no team currently holds such an arena in France. Only ASVEL has a project for a 15,000 seat arena within the next few years. Jordi Bertomeu was in France on Monday and confirmed the qualification of Le Mans for the 2008-09 edition of the Euroleague. However, they are only present because of their first place finish in the regular season and not as a third year in a contract.

Jun 25, 2008ballineurope

This post was published on June 25, 2008

Comments: 15

Teo
16 years ago
sounds like great news for the euroleague. Combined with the new fiba rules this should propel the eruoleague to a “euro-nba”. Maybe first steps toward some sort of cooperation? Stern is known to look upon europe greedily..
It will be a pity about the historical arenas though.
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Maku
16 years ago
Is that article available at the online page of L’equipe?

Can’t find it…
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robbe
16 years ago
If it happens, shame on them.
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Stev
16 years ago
This could be the end of european basketball…
I mean, it is a good idea to create such a league but then the whole competition system has to be changed, not just the top.
You can have a NBA in America because the player producing process is based on educational institutions. In europe this is not the case, so it is questionable which motive could the non euroleague clubs find to invest money in basketball… this could trigger a downleading-spiral-effect with hard to guess results for basketball.
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Christophe
16 years ago
@Maku
the article is not available online
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Teo
16 years ago
I don’t see this killing national competitions at all, also if a certain portion of this league is made up of teams faring well nationally you do have an incentive to be i.e. the third best team in greece. Obviously this could be tough on weaker teams, but the euroleague already is killing those and it would not make a difference, since the monetary means the usual Euroleague clubs have simply have epxloded way past the possibilities weaker teams have to catch up. A closed league would set that in stone, but the problem already is there now.
It is , after all, by and large the same clubs in the euroleague (at least in the second round) every year, with the occasional exceptions here and there.
If you really want to counter this whole “downleading spiral effect” you have to counter teams like barca, pao, oly and cska spending insane amounts for their teams compared to their league average. I heard that even second league players have started demanidng way more money with the craziness going on at the top, and it is only euroleague teams that do that.
But we all celebrate when we read that Navarro comes back for mythical money, or Sarunas, or (enter RICH former nba player in europe here). Well, if we cause an inflation in player’s wages in order to snatch some players from the nba, we have to bear the results, don’t we? That probably means that the 10th team of , say, the greek league (which is far weaker than the acb, admittedly) put together costs less than Papaloukas will earn when they face each other. I’d love to read the comparisons how maybe PAO or OLY spend more money on their team than the rest of the teams put together. Not to start with CSKA..
But as I said, it is a problem we already have, the closed league would at least give those teams a chance to go “all-out” against each other and maybe play more games on a higher level, the trend is there and we might as well try to benefit from it by creating the structural base to try to get some tighter organisation into the euro-game and maybe even a salary cap at some point?
But then again, thinking of Aris being left out of this whole deal makes me shudder as well… we’ll just have to wait and see I guess.
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Alberto
16 years ago
I just don’t know about this decission, but France shouldn’t have 2 spots in Euroleague, not even Germany that one spot… Maybe it’s only a close league, like a normal league, where teams go to second division (their own country) or they promote to Euroleague after a good season. They could not play their country season for some months, as it happens with temas from Adriatic League like Partizan or Cibona. I guess it would be something like that… Anyway, I hope it won’t be a closed league forever, that’s for sure…
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elaj
16 years ago
I don’t know why are you all so in shock… this was in air for few years already…
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Maku
16 years ago
I found a scan:
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/1702/kscan0008dq5.jpg
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Maku
16 years ago
In the 7 seasons with TOP 16, 6 teams (CSKA, Maccabi, PAO, TAU, Barcelona and Efes Pilsen) have reached that stage of the competiton.

Another 3 have only missed one year (Olympiacos, Ulker, and Treviso), Fortitudo 2 years (though Euroleague is now out of reach for these 2 last clubs)

And AEK, Málaga, Madrid, Siena, Zalgiris and Cibona missed 3 years:

This makes 16 clubs that have been in more than half of the TOP 16… Isn’t it already kind of a closed league?
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Jordi Bertomeu
16 years ago
1. I do not plan to do this. Relax.
2. Aris is not Euroleague material.
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Eric
16 years ago
As I”m French, I could read the article.

First : nothing is done, there is a vote to come….well maybe biaised.

What I don’t understand: half-closed, 2/3 closed, 1/8 open…..well that just a mess !!!!
The good decision: open or closed, nothing in between. It’s fake and hyprocrite, as Maku said, the same teams are always at the final stage.

In a close league: you don’t care about the results –> if Lyon’s Asvel is the only city in France with the 10.000 arena and the financial standards, they can play the national championship with their junior C team.
In a open league: a small city, with a genial coach and a over-achieving couple of US can go to the Euroleague –> hello Roanne, a 30.000 inhabitants city, playing in Clermont-Ferrand.
In a part-closed, part-open league: traditionnal national power-house get their chance for 3 years. But with the money they get for qualyfing, they have an edge in the championship, but are destined to mediocrity at the European stage (Le Mans, Roma, Aris….), those teams could make 3+3+3….etc, qualficiation stage without having an impact.
No one is satified : the national champ as they only have a year, the more structured teams that invests a lot in infrastrucutures, the 3 year-team always on the verge of a fall-out.

Like it or not, the ULEB must make a radical decision: open Euroleague or closed Euroleague, nothing in between.
As a fan, I think the national championship will loose some of its flavour. But I am ready to root for a franchise in a closed league, without considering patriotic feelings.
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Os Davis
16 years ago
What’s most hilarious about the Euroleague getting all stroppy (and American business-style) about small arenas can be found in Christophe’s “Attendance figures for European competitions” piece. Look at one of the conclusions:

“[Euroleague regular season attendance] comes out to an average of 5777.0 spectators per game: A bit surprisingly, this number is lower than that of the ACB.”

So maybe the Euroleague should guarantee that one entire division is made up of ACB teams playing one another. That would guarantee ticket sales, right? From a marketing perspective, it makes sense to me.

Just goes to show that maybe some of sports should be about smaller franchises with loyal-if-not-huge fan bases participating with the big boys.
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Eric
16 years ago
Yes !!!!
Roanne had to play in Clermont-Ferrand the whole Euroleague season : 2h30 of driving via car.
The Roanne’s “Hall Vacheresse” was too small, but despite an important media plan, the arena in Clermont was empty.
Had Roanne played in their home court, they would have sold more tickets.

And with gasoline at 1,30€/l, a lot of Roanne fans complained that it costs them more for travelling than for getting tickets !!!!!
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Spain is different
16 years ago
Just a great idea
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