The NBA arrives in Guadalajara with a sports and training macro-project | NewAlcarria

The capital of Alcarria will have an impressive sports complex under the name of Volapuk Square, located on Avenida de Eduardo Guitián. It’s about the NBA Basketball School, a school for boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 18, the first in Europe of this size.

The project was presented this Wednesday at the Palacio del Infantado in an act chaired by Francisco Jiménez, partner and founder of the firm Volapük, Henri Utki, director of NBA operations in Europe and the legendary Amaya Valdemoro and Zaza Pachulia (double champion of the NBA).

The planned activity will be promoted in sports schools, training with NBA coaches and with resident athletes with daily training for the entire season. The center to be built will have the capacity to host national and international championships of more than 40 sports.

The complex that is going to be carried out, with an investment of 15 million euros, will have 21,000 built-up square meters distributed in sports, commercial, leisure and accommodation facilities with a four-star hotel and a car park with more than 170 spaces .

Accommodation capacity is estimated for 280 people, in 80 rooms, with meeting rooms, dining rooms and a training gym.

On the field of play, two FIBA ​​courts will be converted into four basketball training courts and one more outdoor sports center. The construction will consist of three phases. The first, based on promoting sports practice in different locations in the city and the province, a second, with 50 percent of the accommodation in use and a third of 18 months of work so that the complex is one hundred percent.

It is, as confirmed in the presentation, an ambitious project that generates sports and leisure tourism, with the creation of more than 180 jobs. In addition, the forecast of more than 350,000 annual visitors was announced, once in operation, being one of the main engines of the local, provincial and regional economy.

The NBA has been very present in the history of sports in Guadalajara over the last decades, as was recalled in the presentation of the project. Thus, emphasis has been placed on the presence in the American League of several of the so-called ‘Junior de Oro’, who passed in their training stage on the Alcarreña courts such as Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro, Raúl López, José Manuel Calderón… until today where Usman Garuba from Alcarria is also part of the NBA.