Historic Athenian club Panellinios (from which Panathinaikos sprang out) and one of the oldest European basketball clubs, established in 1929 will be moving out of Athens after 81 years, to the town of Lamia.
In the summer long time owner and media tycoon Minos Kyriakou decided not to run the club anymore and club was on the verge of disappearance.
But at the last moment an investor came up willing to inject 600K euros to the club and save it, but only if the club moved to the central Greece town of Lamia. Both Minos Kyriakou and Lamia’s mare agreed with the move.
The club will be playing its home games in Chalkiopouleio Arena, with a capacity of 2600. Lamia has an estimated population of 60,000.
Panellinios sees this as a strategic move to boost its fan base and also basketball, as there is no other basketball club competing in Greek A1 between Athens-Thessaloniki axis.
The club already kept its captain Manolis Papamakarios and is close to signing Derrick Byars.
