By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Rome will again have a basketball team at the top European level, and it’s not Virtus Roma, the club that stopped existing in 2021.
As “Gazzetta dello Sport” reports, on Tuesday afternoon (12/5), the Italian basketball federation is expected to formally approve the move of Vanoli Cremona Basketball, a club founded in 1999, to the Italian Capital.
Former Dallas GM Donnie Nelson is leading the consortium behind this move. Luka Doncic is among the investors, while former player Rimantas Kaukenas, who competed in Italy for Siena and Reggio Emilia, is also among the club representatives. What’s interesting in the report is that the club is also presented as interested in a wildcard for the EuroLeague or the EuroCup.
However, things remain complicated with the team expected to use the “Palazzetto dello Sport” as its home court, which has just a 3.500-seat capacity.
The old PalaEUR, which has a 11.200-set capacity, is expected to be given to the consortium led by Paul Matiasic, current owner of Pallacanestro Trieste, which has made a bid of €5 millions, including renovation costs for a single season. According to the same report, Nelson’s group is giving only €1 million.
Meanwhile, the plot thickens since Matiasic will not move Trieste to Rome, but as “Gazzetta” implies, Sassari, which was just relegated from the Italian first division, may be backed by Matiasic and leave Sardinia for Rome. So suddenly, the Italian capital may have two teams.
“A gap between the NBA’s financial expectations and the reality of the clubs”
However, there’s no indication that the football club of the Italian capital and one of the biggest brands in European sports, AC Rome, is involved in all these plans.
On the contrary, according to “L’Equipe“, football clubs are sceptical about the NBA European project.
Echoing the older reports, the newest article on the matter adds to the football-related doubts.
“From the start, the tension has been about the gap between the NBA’s financial expectations and the reality of the clubs and what they are willing to give, especially since the NBA needs them more than the reverse,” said a senior European sports executive to “L’Equipe” on the condition of anonymity.
That’s why, as Eurohoops reported, the NBA is making “measured adjustments” to its plans that include the reinvestment of the franchises’ bids for a total of $3B to the new league, plus a guaranteed revenue distribution among the clubs for a minimum of $8M per club annually from day one, with the actual number per team possibly being much higher, depending on their court performance.