The name of Unicaja, in a Eurocup draw / LO
Last week I ended up talking about the Euroleague, that competition that was once called the European Cup and that has always been so beautiful and that has made us so excited, I don’t know if it’s because we think you’re among the best, or because you think superior to those around you, let each one choose his motive.
I include myself in the group of geeks who love competition. I also confess that – especially at the beginning of the season – when I watch the games and compare them with the rest of the competitions, I think I’m watching another sport. I don’t believe that an Egis Kormend-Karhu Kauhajoki from the FIBA BCL qualifier is the same modality as a Panathinaikos-Maccabi, but apparently it’s true, and now that our Unicaja is experiencing happy moments, all the good things we have are no longer worth it. is being done and lived in Malaga, we have to change it. Or at least, consider it. Last week I wondered to what extent the Euroleague, for certain clubs, was not a medium-term sentence. And I think we can talk about it.
From the outset, we are already hearing talk about whether we should not take advantage of this moment of prosperity to work in the offices and return to the Euroleague. It is reasonable because, in sport, the main thing is to compete with those who are at your level, and if possible, improve and compete with the greats. That has to be the objective of the work. It is also said around our house that “let’s see if we are going to get bored of the FIBA BCL because it is very little.” Since 1977, the year in which Caja de Ronda appeared, this club (yes, there is life before glamour), has played the Korac Cup 7 times, the Eurocup, 4; the Euroleague, 17 and 3 in the FIBA BCL, counting the current season. The record: 2 titles (Korac Cup and Eurocup) and 2 final four (Euroleague and FIBA BCL).
The FIBA BCL is beginning to seem little to us, and although I do not see the rivals that Unicaja had in 2001 as candidates for the Euroleague play-off, the season in which it won the Korac, the truth is that in Europe, after winning In the Eurocup in the 2016-17 season, the Los Guindos club has competed, but has not dominated anything. It doesn’t matter what competition you apply it to.
The main reason I see is that there are not enough players in Europe to support four really reliable competitions. Furthermore, after the expansion of franchises in the NBA, the increase in salaries in the development league and the inflation produced by Asian competitions, what European basketball has done has been to flee forward, instead of laying the foundations to strengthen its foundations.
In its day, the Euroleague was formed by clubs fed up with the Federation’s management, something very similar to the ACB. From what they intended to what we find today, there is a chasm.
I have mentioned the excess of competitions on the continent, and the truth is that beyond working on integration, what sounds like is that the Euroleague wants to give entry to places as peculiar to our sport as Paris, London or Dubai . And I say peculiar because I will leave the “full democracies” of the Persian Gulf to that geopolitical expert who is Xavi Hernández, and I imagine how fun it will be when Anne Panther and Vasiliki Tsaroucha call a match in the Emirates, in Paris and London. Just add that the French, the top candidates to win the Eurocup (and therefore obtain a ticket to the Euroleague) after the almost complete transplant of Telekom Bonn, have an average attendance of 1,745 spectators, reaching 835 in the opening match against to Wolves Vilnius. The English average 3,105 spectators, with an attendance of 1,287 against Umana Reyer Venice. To contribute something more, the women’s Unicaja had 2,271 spectators last Saturday.
In its day, the Euroleague was sold as a kind of “European Division” compared to the NBA, it was said that continuity in the project was rewarded to sell the issue of licenses and, above all, what has been repeated a thousand times the sustainability of the club, with the “financial fair play” to avoid defaults.
What the passage of time tells us is that the competition is full of tricks, the rules are changed without a problem, if you belong to the eleven partners it doesn’t matter how you turn out. If Valencia Básket decides to end up champion, the invitation may be withdrawn if the Russian teams return, because with Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Baskonia, so much Spanish is already boring. That Gran Canaria resigns, it doesn’t matter, nothing is done.
Continuing with Valencia, crazy applauding the magnificent club structure, the new accommodation for the youth team and the enviable pavilion they are building, but all depending on one person. It is clear that a single source of income is only dangerous depending on the site.
The strength of the project goes more hand in hand with money than with other things. In the 2015-16 season, Darussafaka appeared with Dogus as a sponsor, contributed three million euros to the competition and was his passport to play.
The Euroleague was set up in its day as it suited those who were convinced of the project, they have been varying things as they please and now they have partners who get paid without playing, as in the case of CSKA Moscow. By the way, money from the distribution of media to which the other participants do not have access. All this, accepting the message that an ASVEL-Zalgiris is going to harvest important data from followers beyond Villeurbanne or Kaunas, and it is not true (we geeks are not included in the target audience of the survey).
Today, and much more so after the clarifying statements of President López Nieto, the Euroleague continues to be a poisoned candy for a solid and established club like Unicaja, which is now doing things well, but cannot dream of May it be eternal, especially if things are done again as in the immediately previous era.
With the substantial change in the communication policy, we have stopped imagining things around the club, no matter how much some of us like other things. Here, being the envy of half of Europe, we are in our reality, and the best thing to continue growing is to assume where we are and where we start from.
2024-02-06 06:00:51
#Priorities #Malagas #opinion
