Euroleague FINAL FOUR 2013 - London

[radallo]

Woke this morning after an amazing night of basketball and an incredible atmosphere produced from the Olympiakos fans (with notable "back up" roles from the Real Madrid and Barcelona fans) and..............

........................................it's like it never happened. Not a mention of the game on the BBC sports news, you'd have thought they could go to the trouble of at least reading the score? No fans singing jubilantly through the streets, or even looking as if they were nursing sore heads from too much celebrating, no chatter about the game at coffee bars or on the tube.....

....the only sign to even suggest the biggest game in European basketball took place last night was a girl at King's Cross Station in a Final Four baseball cap.

Did I imagine watching brilliant players like Spanoulis, Llull, Fernandez, Papanikalou and Law put on a great final last night?

Was I only dreaming of yet another Olympiakos Final Four comeback?

Being a fan of European basketball in the UK is surreal, sometimes. We had the honour of hosting the biggest game in European basketball in the capital city but it's almost as if it all took place in a parallel universe!

Completely agree! Londoners don't care a s*+t about basketball and it's utopic to believe fill in the huge O2 arena with foreinger supporters only, neither if you dream of a Zalgiris-Maccabi-Panatinaikos-CSKA(or Oly) F4. Being in a metropolis, unless this city is a real "basketball city" (like Athen, for example), is useless. During the weekend you only have saturday for being a tourist... so how much of london can you visit?? I think, for example Kaunas, Siena, Bilbao would be better solution... if the home team is not qualified, many people would go anyway. The city size is ok for visitors, that in only one one-and-a-half day, can visit the most of the city.

I was really diasspointed about this year organization.. from many point of wiew:
1) I bought an "early" ticket and I was in the U raw (the highest one in the building).
2) I bought an "early" ticket at 160€ and 10days before the event there were tickets in the same sector at 50€
3) I got my ticket 6 day before the event... so no Viagogo access for me... and no possibility to re-sell it
4) O2 organization as prison jail: not possible to exit between the two matches, since they can't scan the barcodeout (basic technology.. anyway.. old stlye bralclets? maybe a club-like hand stamp??). Unbelievable. Moreover I want to have all conditions clearly written before buying ticket from EL.. how many arrived at the arena with keys and coins and were forced to go to the confiscation to drop them off?? I want to know the rules in advance, before buying... not only written at the entrance of the sporthall.
5) No smoking area.
6) Few entertaining event between the games... why not bring the 3vs3 or slamdunk contest finals between the game, unless keeping them in fuc*ing saturday at fu**ing Trafalgar Square??
7) No evening events @Fan Zone (at least in Istanbul a night concert was setup)
8) No supporters meeting points
9) Complete separation within sectors even in the middle of the two games, no possibility to visit the whole arena
10) last but not least.. no beer within the arena

I will write a complain to EL HQ... maybe it won't be even read... but I have to do that.

Now, after complains, few proposal to improve IMHO:
1) Arena size not exceeding 12000... more than enough for incoming years.. with people having few and few money...
2) No more 3rd place final... useless... ok this year Navarro set up a great show and I enjoyed watching... but this match is a really boring: having only one game, maybe at 6pm local time, would allow to sell cheaper ticket packages and at the same time people can go back at home the same night (saving one useless hotel night)
3) All related avents, fan zone, merchandise and so one have to be close to the arena and in the same day of the matches. This would allow to have also fans meeting points, bars, etc.

Sorry for being quit long in the post

[radallo]

I want to write a separate post to sincerly congratulate with Olympiacos.

they proved to be best team in europe.

hat off

[Theskyisalandfil]

I couldn't agree more.
It just that i do not believe that game's profile can be raised here ,not anymore.In england,as a whole.
Now ,London is a different story.
If Londoners had a team in Euroleague,lets say made of few Lithuanians,Spaniards,Greeks or Turks ,maybe even Polish players ?
I would go and see that.
Never going to happen,but still...
I was there today in juniors tournament,and as i was leaving,English team was gathering for a warm up.
Standing right next to Crvena Zvezda players - Most of them looked like kids gathered randomly from the streets,half the size of Serbians.Few chubby ones too.
So no,there is no hope for English basketball

I just wanted to post as one of the few British basketball fans in the O2 over the weekend (sat with the Olympiakos fans, who are my favourite team in Euroleague after seeing them in Athens a couple of years ago. The games (first semi aside) were excellent, and it was great to see Navarro, Weems Rodriguez, Hines, Printezis etc in the flesh for the first time, and see great players like Spanoulis, Teodosic, Kaun, Lull etc again.

I quote Auris's post as it doesn't tell the whole story. I saw the Nike NIJT at the Soccerdome and saw team England beat KK Bosna Sarejvo. Our roster was definitely not 'half the size' of the Belgrade roster you mentioned who I saw earlier, and our athleticism was probably better. Fundamentals, are a recurring problem...but we improved in the game I saw.

You say basketball has no potential outside of London. My local club is not in London, (Sheffield Sharks) and has produced one player in the last 5 years who is on the fringes of a Euroleague roster (Devon Van Oostrum), with limited resources. The truth is the potential of basketball in the UK is remarkably high given the lack of mainstream coverage.

I spent £230 for a ticket [cheapest I could get 2 days into the sale] , because I really wanted to go. The casual fan will not be able to spend that much. A top premier league game will cost circa £40. There was also very little publicity for the event in the mainstream media (Hoopsfix etc but not the BBC), and no-one showed the final live.

Its a real shame in a way that Euroleague has an atmosphere which is much more like the atmosphere we are used to at football, and names that we have some familiarity with (Real, Olympiakos etc), but lacks the language to promote itself as effectively as it could [the sub titles on some of the final videos had spelling errors, and the media efforts to promote the game in advance were minimal]. The NBA on the other hand, has the shared language and ability to gain press coverage, but presents itself in a way that makes the game seem alien (awful entertainment, artificial atmosphere to break up the great basketball)

There are some encouraging things from this weekend though.

* Euroleague working with the BBL. It isn’t at a good standard now and has been badly run in the past, but has improved its organisation this season (7500 and 8000 for finals games). Our club game needs help from the ULEB family.

* The 1team initiative and other CSR events over the weekend were done well. If promoted beforehand, these will give Euroleague a good platform to build on next season.

* England U-18s were competitive (1-2, no blow outs) against decent teams who had better resources than ours in the NIJT.

To really help basketball in England, and drive brand awareness of Euroleague here [as a fan I firmly believe it is the best club competition in the world to watch btw), Euroleague needs to do the following:

- negotiate a TV deal with a mainstream channel for next season. Currently games are shown on delayed feed at odd times on ESPN. Euroleague would be better served giving the season to BBC 3, ITV4 ,or More 4 with key games shown on BBC2, ITV or C4 to promote the game.

- host a regular pre-season tournament at the O2 with competetively priced tickets, and a BBL/GB representative side along with 3 Euroleague clubs. Attempts to push the game in this country should be focussed on giving the mainstream sports fan something to watch as well as football, Rugby League/Union or Cricket. That person doesnt even know european clubs that they are familiar with play basketball as well. They are far more likely to spend £10-20 for a ticket to a pre-season where there is local interest than 20 times that amount on a game which is equivalent to the Champions league final for their first game.

I have no problems with the final four going elsewhere next year (I hope to go), but dont write us off for basketball just yet...

[Red 7]

Athens 1993, Thessaloniki 2000, Athens 2007,

Piraeus 2014?

Anyone who feels devotion has the obligation to consider this seriously..

SEF can't host a final four.

[Olympiakos]

SEF can't host a final four.

In the same way the extended stands "can't" be used?

What's the problem?

[Red 7]

In the same way the extended stands "can't" be used?

What's the problem?

Don't get me wrong. I would like a final four at SEF. However:

1. SEF is too old (and it looks it);
2. It is not an ideal basketball arena;
3. Capacity is not enough (even with the additional stands).

I mean, it would be a bit of a disgrace if after hosting the final four at the wonderful and lavish O2 arena it is hosted at the rusty, decrepid, old SEF.

SEF urgently needs to be modernised and referbished and hopefully transformed into a proper basketball venue.

[Olympiakos]

It doesn't have to be "ideal" in my opinion, neither "lavish". How many stadiums around Europe earn this status anyway? Also with the extensions it will look and become more basketball appropriate plus the capacity will reach 16000, which is more than enough.

Basically I threw the idea mostly because of the 7-year cycle knowing in advance the very little chances since we are not even among the candidates to host the next F4, unless I'm doing a mistake.

[Khalid80]

A Lebanese friend of mine who is pursuing his EBI Masters (Euroleague Basketball Institute Master in Sports Management & Marketing) and who attended many lectures and clinics at the Final 4 in London told me that there is a good chance that Berlin might host the Final 4 next season instead of London. Nothing is official yet of course....