By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
After a season during which their games were streamed on the NBA APP and fans in the USA learned the club’s name because of superstar prospect Victor Wembanyama, the Metropolitans 92 faced a great deal of uncertainty regarding whether they will be able to play in the 2023-24 French League.
According to a piece by BeBasket, the Mets were in danger of missing Sunday’s (23/7) deadline to officially register for the new French League season, before securing the necessary funds to do so. “We will continue, we will have a team with a budget of 5 million euros and more,” said Luc Monnet, the chairman of the board of directors of BBSD (Boulogne-Billancourt Sports Development), the owner of Metropolitans.
While the Mets received certain revenues from buyouts in the cases of Wembanyama and Bilal Coulibaly (the 7th overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft), a great increase in jersey sales (because of Wemby) and sold-out games in big arenas (like the Roland-Garros), the club still needed an additional sum of two million euros to place its registration for the Betclic ELITE League.
All these after the Wembanyama-led Mets finished 2022-23 in second place in the French League standings and made it all the way to the Finals where they were eliminated by EuroLeague powerhouse AS Monaco.
A key reason behind the Mets’ financial problems was that EuroCup didn’t extend an invitation to the club, something that put an end to discussions with potential investors.
The Mets may have solved the matter of their participation in next season’s domestic championship but still have a mountain to climb. Only Lahaou Konate remains from the 2022-23 roster while coach Vincent Collet is expected to be busy with the French national team in the 2023 World Cup until the mid of September and his return to the club is questionable. The new season in France begins on September 16.