By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
By any measure what San Pablo Burgos has achieved on and off the court since 2015 when the club started to have a professional team, is a roaring success. However, what makes Burgos‘ success even more special is that they are the club that took full advantage of everything that the Basketball Champions League has to offer.
Founded in 1994 as CB Miraflores, the meteoric rise of San Pablo Burgos is not just a happy accident and the Basketball Champions League played a huge part in the evolution of the club.
In the very competitive environment of the Spanish Liga Endesa, Burgos is still trying to carve their spot among the local powerhouses. And they made the first huge step towards this direction by having the chance to compete in the Basketball Champions League.
Nobody expected much from coach Penarroya and company back at the start of the 2019-20 season, but the team evolved to a championship-winning unit that managed to get two continental trophies and one intercontinental title without having any similar success or experience on their national top level.
And by doing this, they might even turn a profit, something almost unheard of in European basketball. Thanks to the Basketball Champions League, San Pablo Burgos has won two million euros in just eight months, getting the most of the competition’s financial prizes and winning two titles without having to spend money in order to host the Final Eight, or the Final Four.
Of course, this is a unique case and there are no other BCL winners that have done this in the past. Virtus Bologna won the title on the road back in 2019, but the team has already spent much more than the prize money, having one of the best rosters ever in BCL five-year history.
And that makes the San Pablo Burgos example even more valuable for the Basketball Champions League. It proves that if you have the ability to win on the court and smart management which is not willing to overspend, then you might get a reward that’s not only prestigious but also more than solid financially.