BadalonaBadalona will take advantage of the King’s Basketball Cup to flood the city with events. The district of Llefià, the most populated in the municipality, will host the Minicopa Endesa, a tournament intended for players in the children’s category. UB Llefià is celebrating an initiative that should serve to highlight its local work. “We think it’s fantastic that the ACB and Badalona City Council have opted for the Minicopa to take place in the facility we’re using. It’s good news because the boys and girls will be able to see the players up close that in a few years they will be their idols. In addition, it will help us to integrate basketball in the Llefià neighborhood. It is a boost of enthusiasm that will help us make our sport known,” he explains to the ARA Albert Tomàs, president of the club.
“Our organization is 33 years old and began its activity through neighborhood associations. We have 20 federated teams of all ages, both male and female. Basketball is a perfect social tool to unite and train people with values like solidarity, camaraderie, effort, discipline or respect for the rules. We do a great job of cohesion and we are bringing basketball to schools. When children land in the neighborhood, basketball is a very easy way to to integrate and become part of their social fabric,” assures Tomàs.
Upheaval for the facilities
The president of the UB Llefià, who was a councilor of Badalona, highlights the diversity of his neighbors. “Llefià is a working-class neighborhood, densely populated and very diverse. It has many shortcomings, but at the same time many opportunities. Its human fabric is very rich and there is a very strong sense of belonging. The entities are the engine of the neighborhood, which has a lot push,” he explains. Tomàs hopes that the King’s Cup will serve to improve the pavilions of a city that lives an idyll with basketball. “Badalona’s sports facilities are very bad and the King’s Cup must be a shocker so that they can catch up. Our pavilion is decent, but it needs different performances. The tournament lasts four days, but the work of the clubs it takes place throughout the year and therefore we residents deserve to have first-class facilities,” he recalls.
The harmony with the institutions is good. “From the first moment that the City Council informed us of its intention to bring the King’s Cup to Badalona, we made ourselves available. It is a great event for the city, and the nicest thing is that the whole city can enjoy it. It shouldn’t be a tournament that only takes place in the center but it should have a more global vision. Our organization offered to lend a helping hand by volunteering,” says Tomàs.
In addition to enabling shuttle buses for the fans, Badalona City Council will remodel the Llefià pavilion, both the track and the changing rooms, and will place additional bleachers to reach a capacity of over 1,000 spectators. “The ACB and we worked with different alternatives until we came to the conclusion that Llefià, the most populated neighborhood in the city, was the place to hold the Endesa Mini Cup. It has a magnificent installation and parallel activities can be done around it”, says Rubén Guijarro, mayor of Badalona.
“This trophy will keep growing because it is decided by who consumes it, the fan, who has fun with such pure basketball. The fans’ squad is as important as the team’s squad and Badalona is the place to hold an Endesa Mini Cup”, summarizes Antonio Martín, president of the ACB. The final of the Endesa Mini Cup will be played at the Olympic Pavilion in Badalona.
