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awhom111
Joined: 19 Nov 2014 Posts: 4266
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Richyyy
Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 24414 Location: London
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Posted: 08/11/20 5:13 am ::: |
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Are they intending to play all these games behind closed doors? Maybe attendances are so small for a lot of the smaller teams that it wouldn't make much difference, but some teams must be struggling to make ends meet in the current situation. International travel halfway across Europe for a random EuroCup group game also doesn't seem like a great idea yet. |
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root_thing
Joined: 28 Apr 2007 Posts: 7365 Location: Underground
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Posted: 08/11/20 9:49 am ::: |
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I wonder how firm sponsorship commitments are for these clubs. COVID-19 isn’t only a health crises, it’s also a financial crisis. Companies and local governments all over the world are depending on their national governments to provide aid – mostly by printing money. To then sponsor a basketball team after receiving aid seems like a misuse of these funds. Obviously, some teams are sponsored by rich individuals or stable companies that don’t need government support. You may also have situations where the government directly aids a team or sport. That actually happened here in the US when the NWSL secured a federal PPP loan. Still, given the overall financial situation, I would expect some overseas teams to severely cut back spending, go on hiatus, or even permanently disband.
_________________ You can always do something else.
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awhom111
Joined: 19 Nov 2014 Posts: 4266
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Posted: 08/11/20 11:59 pm ::: |
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Richyyy wrote: |
Are they intending to play all these games behind closed doors? Maybe attendances are so small for a lot of the smaller teams that it wouldn't make much difference, but some teams must be struggling to make ends meet in the current situation. International travel halfway across Europe for a random EuroCup group game also doesn't seem like a great idea yet. |
Are there any leagues besides France and maybe Spain that really benefit financially from fans? Supposedly Spain plans on having some fans at the Super Cup in mid-September.
FIBA is going to leave it as late as possible to decide, but it sounds like they have one plan where things follow a normal schedule and another where they would shorten the competition and start in the new year, possibly using single sites. They also have to assess whether November national team games can be played or if they will try to play them all in February.
I think that we will learn a lot as UEFA tries to play qualifiers in a ton of countries in the next few weeks, but the Drita debacle today makes me think that we should be pessimistic.
root_thing wrote: |
I wonder how firm sponsorship commitments are for these clubs. COVID-19 isn’t only a health crises, it’s also a financial crisis. Companies and local governments all over the world are depending on their national governments to provide aid – mostly by printing money. To then sponsor a basketball team after receiving aid seems like a misuse of these funds. Obviously, some teams are sponsored by rich individuals or stable companies that don’t need government support. You may also have situations where the government directly aids a team or sport. That actually happened here in the US when the NWSL secured a federal PPP loan. Still, given the overall financial situation, I would expect some overseas teams to severely cut back spending, go on hiatus, or even permanently disband. |
A lot of these clubs already use direct government support to fund operations normally. It does sound like budgets have been slashed though and sponsors/owners cannot afford as much, but I guess it will take a little while to see the overall effect or if the same players are just getting paid less to play in the same places. Wisla Krakow was in the EuroLeague quarterfinals five years ago, but lost the sponsorship of Can-Pack and voluntarily relegated themselves to the second division. Polkowice was in danger of losing support with CCC's apparel business struggling, but it sounds like they will play in the top division. Lattes Montpellier in France turned down their EuroLeague spot. I would totally expect teams to run out of money midseason though. |
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awhom111
Joined: 19 Nov 2014 Posts: 4266
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Posted: 09/02/20 11:59 pm ::: |
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FIBA announces that the EuroCup regular season will be pushed back to January and that they will still try to have EuroLeague start as scheduled. There was no word on national team games in November, which could be pushed back to February. Bubbles or other format changes are still an option.
Of course, I have no idea why they need to play games as this team will probably dominate as long as copper can be mined:
Some leagues are starting later than usual, while others are starting earlier. France and Spain will have competitive games in the next few weeks. Fan policies are still unclear, but there will probably be a few leagues who can have them at the start, possibly with limits. A number of preseason games have been called off due to one or both teams with positive tests and some teams have had to stop practicing to avert outbreaks within the group. There have been reported delays for some Americans getting to their teams, but it sounds like overall there is no issue. I do wonder if that means that teams will be less tolerant of long breaks after the WNBA season than usual.
China is reportedly not going to have foreign players and may bubble for part of the season. I wonder if that means that some European teams who waited might be able to get a post player that they would not be able to afford in normal years. The situation in Romania sounds a bit chaotic right now because some teams are able to basically afford a normal season and some are in bad shape and might not be able to even afford a team of amateur students so they may not have enough teams to run a legitimate league competition having already merged the first and second divisions in recent years. |
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awhom111
Joined: 19 Nov 2014 Posts: 4266
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awhom111
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Posted: 09/17/20 11:39 pm ::: |
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FIBA has invoked the option to shorten EuroLeague. The existing groups have been split in half and the plan is to play two three game single location pods for group play.
The league is starting swimmingly well in Spain as both of Friday's games have been postponed due to teams involved returning too many positive tests. It is unclear to me whether the teams playing this weekend have already passed the last tests or if any more games are in danger.
France rescheduled the cup final from May to tomorrow to start the season, but both teams have virus and other issues and it could be a pretty dour affair. Lyon may barely be able to field a team in part because there was an outbreak on their academy team so they cannot just promote a few youngsters and Bourges has been struggling, but will probably be able to field a full rotation of pros. That academy plays in France's third division, which starts this weekend, but has had multiple games postponed already. I have not seen anything on second division teams, which play the first round of this season's cup this weekend.
I wonder what the final standards will be in some of these leagues, but it seems like three positive tests is the magic number for issues so far. UEFA seems to believe that soccer teams being able to dress 14 players is sufficient to play a game. |
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awhom111
Joined: 19 Nov 2014 Posts: 4266
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Posted: 09/18/20 11:24 pm ::: |
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I should have named this thread COVID update instead.
The two teams had four positive tests between them and other injuries so the players of both Bourges and Lyon decided that they did not want to play and forced the game to be cancelled. The feeling is that if it was a regular season game, it would have been postponed, but so much work had been put into getting the event arranged that people outside of the teams wanted it played. Apparently some fans would have been allowed to watch too.
One of Saturday's games in Spain has also been postponed. |
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awhom111
Joined: 19 Nov 2014 Posts: 4266
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Posted: 09/19/20 5:28 pm ::: |
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Three games were played in Spain as scheduled.
Three of the five games in the French Cup were played, but two teams forfeit because they felt that they would not be able to field a functional rotation for the game.
In their third division, all six games were played in one pool and two of six in the other were postponed due to too many positive tests. |
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awhom111
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root_thing
Joined: 28 Apr 2007 Posts: 7365 Location: Underground
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Posted: 09/20/20 4:50 pm ::: |
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It's a major surprise to see Batouly Camara playing professional basketball. In three years at UConn, she barely got off the bench and we were always led to believe it was because she was injured or at least not healthy enough to play significant minutes.
_________________ You can always do something else.
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IM in OC
Joined: 25 Mar 2009 Posts: 1000 Location: Orange County, CA
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Posted: 09/20/20 6:32 pm ::: |
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Are USA players allowed to play in the Euro countries at this time? I know some players may have dual passports, but I thought many of these countries had bans on USA citizens traveling?
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awhom111
Joined: 19 Nov 2014 Posts: 4266
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Posted: 09/20/20 11:38 pm ::: |
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IM in OC wrote: |
Are USA players allowed to play in the Euro countries at this time? I know some players may have dual passports, but I thought many of these countries had bans on USA citizens traveling? |
I have heard of delays, but not of any outright blocking. Generally if you are wanted in a place, someone will make sure you are allowed to get there. |
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awhom111
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Posted: 09/25/20 10:56 pm ::: |
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Issues continue for Zaragoza so they will not be able to start their season yet. Two other games were at risk in Spain, but appear to be on for now.
France postponed their entire opening weekend to get everyone on the same page with regulations. Two second division games have been postponed and I have not checked the third division.
One game was postponed in the Czech Republic with plenty of notice as Brno appears to be having issues.
All games were played as scheduled in Iceland. |
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awhom111
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Posted: 09/26/20 11:32 pm ::: |
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One of the two at risk games in Spain has been pushed back to Monday.
All of the games were played in France's third division were played after a couple of team outbreaks last weekend.
Slovenia played all of their games as scheduled. |
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IM in OC
Joined: 25 Mar 2009 Posts: 1000 Location: Orange County, CA
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Posted: 09/27/20 1:34 pm ::: |
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awhom111 wrote: |
One of the two at risk games in Spain has been pushed back to Monday.
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The game between Avenida and Promote, which was moved to Monday(tomorrow) has now been postponed as the player on Promote that tested positive on Wednesday, has again tested positive. No new date set.
https://twitter.com/BaloncestoESP/status/1310142136327651329
If you cant translate tweet it says ---The counter-analysis confirms the positive in the visiting team and the meeting between
@CBAvenida
Y
@CDPromete
it is postponed pending a new date for its dispute.
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awhom111
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Shades
Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 63976
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Posted: 09/27/20 8:40 pm ::: |
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Any chance a rash of postponed games overseas pushes back games into the 2021 WNBA calendar? I guess that’s an unpredictable thing. Is there gonna be a vaccine early next year and how available will it be?
_________________ Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned
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awhom111
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Posted: 09/29/20 11:48 pm ::: |
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Shades wrote: |
Any chance a rash of postponed games overseas pushes back games into the 2021 WNBA calendar? I guess that’s an unpredictable thing. Is there gonna be a vaccine early next year and how available will it be? |
I don't see that as much of a possibility, especially with both Eurobasket and the Olympics on the schedule for now. Shortening the FIBA competitions has created a lot of room for rescheduled games. If the virus is so severe that it is causing that much issues, the economic impact will probably make it so nobody wants leagues to run longer than necessary. |
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awhom111
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awhom111
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awhom111
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awhom111
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awhom111
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awhom111
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