Euro Leagues Almost Complete
With the topic turned to basketball overseas, I just wanted to give everyone an update on basketball in Europe. The IBL league starts at the end of March or early on in April. This is a problem with many Euro leagues that would create scheduling issues. The playoffs in Spain, France, and Germany are currently still in progress. Many of these leagues won’t finish until mid June. The IBL season finishes up at the end of June as the playoffs start in July. If an IBL team was located in Barcelona or Bonn right now the fans wouldn’t be paying any attention to it because both of those teams are still fighting for a title in Spain and Germany.
I’ve outlined the many positives of locating overseas, but I also feel I need to highlight a drawback as well. If OMT locates in a city they will take a backseat to first league playoff games. Without a winter basketball league Thailand would have that advantage for an IBL team. The Express League in Iceland actually finishes up in April, so that is a positive.
One of the bonuses about locating overseas is the interest the right community would take in the team. A city like Ensenada, Bangkok, Reykjavik, etc have never seen the talent level of the IBL live. In these cities OMT would be treated like Chicago would treat the Chicago Bulls.
I have also suggested that with increased membership and revenues OMT might be able to get involved in a winter basketball league in the future. Salaries are much higher for this, so OMT would have to be wildly successful for this to happen. The Express League would be a good option even though the league isn’t very talented. Top teams in the league get invited to ULEB Cup and EuroCup tournaments just like the best teams from superior leagues. That means OMT could compete with the “big dawgs” from the start.
France and Spain have the best leagues in Europe along with Russia, Italy, and Greece. Not only are their top leagues oustanding, but their second leagues are of high quality as well. Spain’s LEB league is the top 2nd league in the world. Many high quality prospects have risen through the league. I’ve actually written an article on a former D1 player that is with Caja Rioja in Spain. In this article I made it very clear that he would be a great addition to the D-League next fall.
The LEB is a comparable league to Germany’s top league. France and Spain both are ideal leagues for an OMT winter league to purchase because of their depth. France has a 5 level league from ProA to N3. The league is so deep that former ProA champions are currently in the N1 (third league). Antibes is on the southern coast of France. Antibes has won the ProA title in 1970, 1991, and 1995. Antibes won the Korac Cup 6 times from 1986 to 2000. They also won the European Cup twice in that same time period. Since that time Antibes has fallen from ProA to N1. In an attempt to rise into ProB Antibes went 27-7 to lead the N1 league. Antibles plays in Jean Bunoz gym that seats over 5000 people.
Antibes is also the hottest tourist destination for summer vacationers in France. During the summer the city is jam packed with traffic, so it also would make for an interesting IBL city. Cantabria is a team in Spain that has fallen from the ACB league to the LEB league. Cantabria seats over 6000 fans and has a rich basketball tradition. Below are pictures of Antibes and Cantabria.
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