By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The timing was more than right, as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, and Nikola Jokic are dominating the spotlight of world basketball, and having all three in the Eurobasket is more than enough.
Add Alperen Sengun, Victor Wembanyama, who was absent from this year’s tournament, and Franz Wagner, and the future of the event is secured.
Simply put, while the Olympics, due to the presence of the “real” Team USA, and the FIBA World Cup, which includes Canada, Australia, and other big national team programs, have their own prestige, Eurobasket dominates global headlines among the FIBA continental tournaments, and there’s a good reason for that.
Recorded television numbers all over Europe prove that they surpass even the recent NBA finals viewership and cement the importance of Europe in the global basketball ecosystem.
And things are bound to get even better.
This was the “COVID Eurobasket”, co-organized by Latvia, Cyprus, Poland, and Finland. While the final result was good, the four arenas’ capacity was limited by modern standards, and the “wow” factor of attending live was not exactly there.
Xaomi Arena in Riga (11.200 seats), Nokia Arena in Tampere (13.455 seats), Spodek in Katowice (11.036 seats), and the “Spyros Kyprianou” Athletic Center in Limassol (8.000 seats) provided a great environment, but not something unseen before.
That will not be the case in 2029.
Slovenia will host a game in the 12.480 seats Stozice Arena, Greece is providing OAKA with an 18.300 capacity, Spain will have the Movistar Arena with 15.000 seats, and the only small gym is the 7.200-seat capacity Unibet Arena in Estonia.
Plus, the opening game of the tournament is expected to be played in the iconic Santiago Bernabéu Stadium with a whopping 78.287 capacity, automatically creating an event within the event.
When you have the biggest stars of the game on the court, you simply have to go bigger, and the only hiccup that may need to be addressed is that having the Eurobasket one year after the Olympics, some teams that have already achieved Olympic glory – looking at you, France – may decide to skip…
Photo credit: FIBA