Surprise champions ratiopharm Ulm and the Niners Chemnitz will play the opening game on Wednesday. Tip-off is at 8 p.m.
What does the schedule look like?
The season will be interrupted once due to a national team window: On February 22nd and 25th, world champions Germany will play in the European Championship qualifiers against Montenegro and Bulgaria. The first round ends on January 21st, the main round on May 12th. The play-offs are scheduled to begin on May 17th and be over by June 17th at the latest.
There is an innovation. Like the North American professional league NBA or the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), the BBL is introducing a play-in tournament. After the 34 main round game days, there are only six direct tickets left for the quarter-finals; the teams in places seven to ten will fight in three playoffs for the two open play-off places. Then it continues in “best of five” mode.
Who will win the championship race?
The big favorite is Bayern Munich. The cup winners have strengthened themselves well, including the arrival of the Spaniard Serge Ibaka, who was NBA champion in 2019 with the Toronto Raptors. Defending champion Ulm has lost important pillars such as finals MVP Yago dos Santos and Bruno Caboclo, Champions League winners and runners-up Telekom Baskets Bonn, the whole team including the coach. Former series champion Alba Berlin has also gone through a major upheaval and is likely to have a difficult time.
What about the world champions?
At least four play in the BBL. Andreas Obst, Isaac Bonga and Niels Giffey are on the ball for Bayern, Johannes Thiemann continues to play for Alba. Maodo Lo left Berlin for Italy, David Krämer went from Braunschweig to Spain.
Rasta Vechta is back in the upper house after two years, the Tigers Tübingen are playing in the BBL again after five years of absence. Brose Bamberg has become the Bamberg Baskets. Monday games are also new and the number of different tip-off times has been reduced. The relegated Fraport Skyliners and medi Bayreuth are no longer there.
FC Bayern is creating a premiere. At the start against Syntainics MBC from Weißenfels, the Munich team will play on a glass video sports floor for the first time. Lines and boundaries are displayed via LED. “This is next level, what you can play there on an LED glass floor,” says BBL managing director Stefan Holz. Animations and graphics can also be displayed on the field.
As the successor to MagentaSport, Dyn is the league’s new TV partner; the contract with the live streaming service of former DFL boss Christian Seifert runs for six years. Dyn shows the 306 main round, all play-off and all cup games live. Through a cooperation with Axel Springer Verlag, 40 games will also be available to watch freely and free of charge on various platforms such as BILD TV, bild.de and sportbild.de. For this purpose, Dyn has granted a further sublicense to SportA, through which ARD, ZDF and the third programs receive an extensive rights package. Dyn costs 12.50 euros per month for an annual subscription, and 14.50 euros for a monthly subscription.
For Holz, the World Cup gold is “not a total game changer,” nor will it “turn Germany from a football nation to a basketball nation.” But the league boss is sure “that there will be a boost for our efforts.”
What else could be said…
“Behind Dyn is the majority owner Axel-Springer-Verlag and Christian Seifert, the long-time head of the German Football League, is also the owner. And in this constellation it’s somehow a killer.” (BBL boss Holz on the new media partner).
2023-09-25 09:33:00
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