By Antonis Stroggilakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Following the press conference of the Basketball Champions League Final Four teams’ head coaches and squad captains, ahead of the tournament that launches on Friday (4/5), competition CEO Patrick Comninos sat down with journalists to answer a round of questions on various topics.
Here’s what Comninos said on:
The progress of the Basketball Champions League:
It’s a fact that FIBA, after 16-17 years of absence from organizing weekly games, is back with a major wager. There were attempts that lasted one, two seasons but stopped. There have been attempts but failed. So the burden is great. The teams’ first reaction was being cautious. What is this organization? Where does it go?
In my travels, I met cautious managers and club presidents. We strived to prove that this is a competition of teams. And leagues. We have no agreement with teams, we expect to see their success in domestic leagues first.
So we started to channel the message to the clubs. That this is their competition.
We receive a positive feedback from many teams. Our clubs are our representatives. We receive positive feedback and questions from teams that haven’t played in BCL. They talk to each other. To other GMs. And most of them give positive feedback. So other teams examine the prospect of playing in Basketball Champions League. Of course, they first have to present their results in their domestic leagues.
We are making steps forward: One of them is attracting big brands of basketball, considering that they fulfill their criteria from domestic leagues success.
We are realistic. It’s a difficult time regarding the marketing. Basketball isn’t an easy seller. Things are unclear. This is the biggest problem in basketball. Four competitions, hundred teams, so many games and uncertainty regarding where each team will play next year. This makes the marketing difficult. Basketball has four competitions in Europe with 40 million revenue overall, EuroLeague gains most of them. This is a poor number for the second most popular sport in the world.
We aren’t satisfied. We aren’t satisfied when it comes to the revenues of basketball as a market. We don’t attract the numbers we would like. The difference is that revenues distribution is important. The winner of the Basketball Champions League receives one million and this is a large part of their yearly budget. This gives them a motivation. I’m of the opinion that playing in Europe is a reward, not a burden. For many teams, the financial result is a minus. So it’s a burden.
My personal bet? In five years we want to be the best competition in Europe. That’s my personal bet. The more progress we make, the better the results.
On Panathinaikos potentially joining the Basketball Champions League next season:
With Panathinaikos having expressed their interest in joining, we began a dialogue with the management of the club. Not only the owner. There’s an entire spectrum of transition. It’s the same procedure we follow with all the teams that want to play in the Basketball Champions League. We don’t underestimate the value that the name of Panathinaikos carries. But the procedure is the same. The meetings, exchanging views, explaining how the Basketball Champions League is organized. What it means for a team to be there.
During the next days, there will be discussions also at a political level. It makes us happy that one of the biggest clubs in Europe wants to discuss with us. I imagine that we will have more developments the next weeks.
We remain faithful to our principals. When the Greek league playoffs are completed we’ll have a clearer picture.
On EuroLeague:
We may not have big names. Or “so-called” big names. This is a wrong approach in my opinion that FIBA has allowed, in a way. That “big names” don’t have to do with what the teams do on the floor. It doesn’t matter if Maccabi wins the Israeli league. They are still considered the best Israeli team. It doesn’t matter if Milano wins the Italian league or not.
We want to channel this message. EuroLeague doesn’t use sports criteria for the rest of the spots. This creates a new model. This is what we discuss with Panathinaikos.
There are discussions. With many teams. The clubs are called to make a decision. On many levels. It also has to do with the relationship of the teams with their domestic leagues. We can’t overlook the fact that teams that play in the EuroLeague, play also in domestic leagues. This participation is demanding.
When EuroLeague says that EuroCup teams won’t give players to the national team windows, you realize what problems this creates for teams. This is a major factor. Where do teams want to be? Against their federation, because they won’t be able to let players play, they might receive phone calls pressuring them to release their players. It’s not an attractive model. Many teams examine their future prospect.
Fenerbahce had a dreamy season, when they won everything, and declared an 18 million damage. What can other teams say about it? This is a big problem. In your dream season, you must have a surplus. If you don’t do that then there isn’t any prospect. That’s the big bet in basketball. This isn’t a viable model. In basketball, it’s either the club or the government that finance basketball or “crazy” presidents that choose to do so. It’s not viable. The day that the club, the sponsor or the crazy president stops, then clubs cease to exist. This is the big problem of European basketball.
This is why we try to suggest a different model. What is that? If you succeed, play with the best. EuroLeague has created a closed club to guarantee all revenues in a market and distribute them to the major shareholders. This is a model not attractive to investors. Which investor will invest when they know that they (a team) won’t be able to compete against the best even if they win the league?