[Black Urum]

Via TalkBasket

Quote

Mediterranean Basketball League: a vision to revive basketball

Greek basketball federation, and former FIBA Europe, president George Vasilakopoulos is behind the idea of creating a united Mediterranean League which will include teams from Greece, Italy, Serbia, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus and Bulgaria.



The idea goes way back and many basketball people all over Europe supported the creation of such a league but it never went through. After the failed Balcan regional league with smaller club some countries are ready to take the next step, possibly even create the league from next season.

The reasons behind this idea is the lack of competition in domestic league. In Greece no team can even question Olympiacos, let alone Panathinaikos, authority. In Turkey the Fenerbahce-Efes Pilsen couple are playing in the finals every year. In Italy Montepaschi Siena has created a dynasty of its own. In Serbia and the entire former Yugoslavia PArtizan dominates while Maccabi Tel Aviv rarely loses a championship in Israel while in Cyprus its either AE Limassol, APOEL Nicosia or Keravnos Strovolos year after year.

Just imagine a league with a regular season and play-offs consisting of:

Panathinaikos
Olympiacos
Montepaschi Siena
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Fenerbahce
Efes Pilsen
Galatasaray
Besiktas
Turk Telekom
Partizan
Hemofarm
Maroussi
Aris
AE Limassol
APOEL Nicosia
Hapoel Jerusalem etc...

The plan is for each country to be represented by its finest clubs who will not be playing in the regular seasons of their domestic league (if it possible to be applied for every country) and instead play the regular season games in the MEditerranean Leagur while join their domestic league once the play-offs begin.

The new League-product could attract large TV networks from many countries and even international sports networks while the difficult (or more difficult than the domestic ones) games will generate fan interest which will boost season and normal tickets sales.

According to Greek Basketball Federation Sources there will be a minimum of four Greek clubs in the new League while Greek A1 will reduce its number of teams to create a more versatile and professional league.

[MaccabiTA]

if it actually happens, it would be amazing, every week a few more great games instead of the mostly boring domestic league games, huge competition of some of the best teams in Europe and it will help the teams keep the players in the high level like in Euroleague games and not drop every week to the mostly low level and easy games in domestic leagues.
I think it's a great idea now let's just hope it will be more than just an idea.

[Panathinaikos]

MaccabiTA, on 28 July 2010 - 01:52 PM, said:

if it actually happens, it would be amazing, every week a few more great games instead of the mostly boring domestic league games, huge competition of some of the best teams in Europe and it will help the teams keep the players in the high level like in Euroleague games and not drop every week to the mostly low level and easy games in domestic leagues.
I think it's a great idea now let's just hope it will be more than just an idea.

Considering the rivalries and derbies and the more intense crowds, IMHO it would be even better than the Euroleague is.

[Efes4ever]

its gonna be interesting Turkish teams playin southern cyprus ( i passed israel ) This will improve friendship i hope.... so Where's spain?

[Panathinaikos]

Efes4ever, on 28 July 2010 - 11:08 PM, said:

its gonna be interesting Turkish teams playin southern cyprus ( i passed israel ) This will improve friendship i hope.... so Where's spain?

Obviously ACB clubs would not play because they feel they already have a good league.

[Black Urum]

Efes4ever, on 28 July 2010 - 11:08 PM, said:

its gonna be interesting Turkish teams playin southern cyprus ( i passed israel ) This will improve friendship i hope.... so Where's spain?

Turkish clubs are already played vs Cypriot clubs... nothing to see there...

[ZEUS]

Panathinaikos, on 29 July 2010 - 03:42 PM, said:

Obviously ACB clubs would not play because they feel they already have a good league.

ACB sets the example for all other European leagues to follow. If this is the Mediterranean, what's Serbia and Bulgaria doing in there?
It would be very good if say the top four Spanish teams played as well.

Hopefully a move like this would be good for the sport in general, and not just generating greater revenues

[skangles]

I do not understand this, it's not like travel costs are so huge around Europe. I'd prefer just to see these teams square off in the broader European competitions like the Euroleague and Eurocup. If the idea is to have these teams play each other more frequently why not just expand the number of games in the European leagues?

Why do we need to be exclusive to the "Mediterranean region"? I'm fine with regional leagues as long as there is some historical/political logic to it like the Baltic and Adriatic leagues. Otherwise, let's stick with the national competitions and crack on with the European leagues.

This post has been edited by skangles: 05 August 2010 - 04:27 AM

[kobimel]

skangles, this is a solution for teams that are several levels above their leagues and are bored with their domestic competition. In this new league they could have challenging opponents every week instead of facing the same old weak local teams they're facing right now.

If Maccabi played in the Mediterranean league and joined the Israeli league just for the Final Four, that wouldn't go down too well in Israel...I think if the teams move to the Mediterranean league, they should leave their domestic leagues completely, not just for the regular season. That would weaken a lot of leagues around Europe considerably though, so I'm not sure this league is a good idea.

[Led00]

What would happen to the Adriatic league if that happens?

I think that league like this is too much. Way to many strong games when combined with EL and NT. Just way to many...

[ZEUS]

Too many?

Think about the endless possibilities of frequent injuries in the players