The president assures that they are working from now on to be able to play the Euroleague in the future without “mortgaging” the entity
MADRID, 13 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Dreamland Gran Canaria, Sitapha Savané, explained this Tuesday that the club chose to give up playing in the Euroleague this coming season because it was “an almost suicidal leap” at an economic level but, on the contrary, he assured that they will work immediately to be able to in the maximum competition in the future and without “mortgaging” the entity.
“The plan, from now on, is to work now to take the necessary steps so that, when it is achieved again on the field, make the leap to the Euroleague without it being, like now, an almost suicidal leap that could jeopardize the future of the club,” he said at a press conference.
In this sense, he contributed that they decided not to play the Euroleague this season because they believed that it could jeopardize the viability of the club in the medium term. “Just when we are coming out of two years with a million-dollar deficit and we are recovering the financial balance of the club. But we have decided to continue in the Eurocup, and we will be able to reach the Euroleague with a minimum of guarantees in the future,” he contributed.
“The decision taken has been the most difficult of this time due to the illusion that the team, club and fans had to play this competition again. The easy thing was to say ‘let’s go and let it be what God wants’, but it would be irresponsible in disguise of courage”, the leader from Gran Canaria was honest.
Savané assured that the club had been considering accepting or not accepting the Euroleague invitation for months, since it thought it could win the Eurocup, as it finally did. And they opted for no on an economic level based, above all, on the amount of the trips and the demanding schedule that it would entail.
“We base ourselves on our previous participation, on travel expenses because we are in Gran Canaria. And we go from 18 Regular Season games to 34, with fewer rest days between games and with double Euroleague weeks, which would not leave no other option than to travel by charter flight,” he said.
“Taking the reference from Valencia Basket, the club that we were going to replace in the Euroleague, in order to arrive at these estimates. Valencia’s travel budget went from 500,000 euros in the Eurocup to 1.5 million euros in the Euroleague. In our case the rise would be more than a million euros. Our forecast was 2 million euros,” he added.
In addition, at a sporting level, playing in the Euroleague means an increase in the budget for the squad. “Strengthening the squad and making it longer to face two competitions such as acb and Euroleague would mean making four signings and reaching a budget of 7.5 million, that of ALBA Berlin, which was the lowest this season. And ours is 5 million “, he recalled.
“Not making adjustments to the squad would condemn us to the sporting path of our last participation, which we suffered in the Euroleague and flirted with relegation in acb and we were left out of the Playoff. And this data is the most dangerous for us. For a club that arrives to the Euroleague, to continue he must be among the eight best and get into the ‘Playoffs’. It is something that has only happened in one case in the history of the Euroleague. And with a recently promoted player and with the lowest budget, never It has happened,” he said.
He regretted that the income from playing in the Euroleague is well below, for example, what UD Las Palmas will receive for being promoted to LaLiga Santander. “Basketball is not football. Our friends from UD Las Palmas (they have gone up to the First Division) will charge between 50-70 million for LaLiga games. If we played the Euroleague, we would have earned between 350,000 and 500,000 euros, when expenses rose by over 4 million”, he lamented.
The leaders of the Gran Canaria club met this past Monday afternoon to assess the report collected by the entity and voted unanimously not to participate in the Euroleague, a tournament in which they won the right to play after beating Türk Telekom in Ankara in the final of the last Eurocup (71-67).