A Copa del Rey between soccer support to Madrid and Barcelona and the financial juggling of the tapas

Spanish basketball reaches one more year its most important event on the calendar. The Copa del Rey, which this time returns to Malaga, hosts for four days (from February 13 to 16) eight hobbies willing to encourage their teams to leave Martin Carpena with the trophy under his arm. Eight clubs that closed their rankings driven by very different economic projects from each other, even more so between the two giants of the basket (Real Madrid and Barcelona) and a group of applicants where the amazing Casademont Zaragoza stands out as leader of the rebellion on the slopes .

When on the 14th day Zaragoza assaulted Malaga, the humble Casademont certified his qualification for the Copa del Rey with three days left until the end of the first round. It was the confirmation of what was happening throughout the season, a team entrusted to the hands of Porfirio Fisac ​​demonstrating that with one of the lowest budgets of the entire ACB could look the big ones of the orange ball in the face .

Even third in the domestic competition, just one victory from Madrid and two from Barça, the Aragonese team managed two seasons ago to save the category in extremis and with only ten victories (last of the permanence). Then the situation in Zaragoza was critical and a decline could have drowned their accounts, but that objective was served so that the partners headed by Reynaldo Benito, president since 2007, could opt for a more comfortable future.

The following season, an increase of 850,000 euros through and already with the Segovian coach on the bench and a budget of four million, the table was still on the wire of survival. However, the sixth place in the league and the semifinals in the Playoffs allowed, already, to have a certain economic margin that this campaign has been totally transferred to the state of the team with another increase of one million to compensate for past losses. In addition, the Catalan meat house Casademont and the regional Grupo Costa have become official sponsors, giving Tecnyconta relief, to certify the economic impulse that does not come from the Aragonese institutions.

Malaga and Valencia, supported by Unicaja and Roig, are the middle class that aspires to unseat some Madrid and Barça deficits but boosted by the potential of football

Zaragoza is one of the teams in the league that receives less money from its region, the last game of the Provincial of 220,000 euros for 15 clubs in the territory exemplifies it, and is far from its rival in the quarterfinals of the Cup. Local Unicaja that enters only through the sponsorship of Andalusia in the 290,000 euros shirt, to which it adds the sponsorships of Malaga 2020, Costa del Sol or Benahavís to raise its budget, together with the essential support of the Malacitano bank since 1991, until almost 11 millions of euros.

Malaga, together with Valencia Basket, represents the middle class of national basketball and the only ones in this Cup that can 'get close' to Madrid and Barcelona. While the budget of the taronja table reaches 21.5 million, due to the patronage of Juan Roig with Pamesa and Mercadona behind, that of whites and Blaugranas is around 35 thanks to the support of football, vital for the survival of these sections that left years ago of being profitable.

Despite the constant struggle for all the titles and owning the best players on the continent, the two Spanish giants only enter 15.88 (those of the capital) and 9.17 million (those of the city), while bearing losses of 27.91 and 32.3 'kilos', respectively. Sponsorships such as Palladium, ETFinance, Assitència Sanitària or Serveto remain insufficient due to the few capital inflows that the sale of tickets and television rights brings, so both are forced to pull the potential of their accounts in football to maintain the gap that separates them from the rest of Spain and allows them to be in high positions in Euroleague.

Finally, Bilbao, Andorra and Tenerife join Zaragoza in that lower class that chooses to surprise in a format that reduces the advantage of economic potential. The Basque team has returned to the gold category with revenues of 440,000 euros and a budget of 3.6 million (the smallest of the Endesa League) and is close to forgetting its debt to the Treasury, Caja Rural and Fogasa that already only It stands at 2.34 'kilos'.

Under the leadership of Álex Mumbrú, the men in black have left behind their decline in 2017, and after a great course in the second division they have appeared in the Cup to the point of being the only Basque club taking the witness of the almighty, but irregular this year, Baskonia. A good technical planning that has been maintained with the regional livelihoods of El Correo, Euskatel, Seguros Bilbao and KutxaBank to revive the Miribilla public.

For their part, MoraBanc Andorra and Iberostar Tenerife, which will face each other in the quarterfinals, have based part of their strength in recent seasons on precisely the two entities that have their rights to naming. Together with the bank of the principality and the Balearic hotel chain, Andorra and Tenerife enjoy an economic stability that carries their budget above 5 and 6.5 million, respectively. The Cabildo enters 1.1 'kilos' in the Canaries, while in Andorrans, in addition to having tax advantages by the Principality, it is state-owned companies such as Andorra Telecom, Pyrénées Andorra or Molines Patrimonis that help them both dream of their first Copa del Rey.

The best Euroleague in history is presented with Madrid and Barça at the head