EuroLeague Basketball reportedly examines different format to finish the season
EuroLeague Basketball wants to finish the season and examines different scenarios on how to accomplish it.
Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, it is unlikely the season will finish in May and will end either in late June or July.
EuroLeague Chief Operations Officer Edward Scott said the league examines the possibility of hosting a two-group tournament in a single city.
EuroLeague COO talked to the Spanish newspaper “El Pais” about that scenario:
“If due to sanitary reasons or deadlines it is not possible to play in the 18 team arenas, we would choose to concentrate all the matches in one or two gyms in a single city.
The last option would be for the clubs to establish the corresponding modification of the competition format for a more direct resolution”.
Players, coaches and club employees will have about three days to return from their places of confinement and get to work. Then a mandatory 14-day quarantine extension period will be enabled.
And, once all the teams are ready, a brief pre-season of another two weeks would start before resuming the competition.
In total, it would take practically a month before being able to resume the season, which is how the NBA worked after the 2011-12 lockout. That period guarantees the health of athletes.”
At the moment, there are only three cities available with two EuroLeague arenas, namely Moscow, Istanbul and Athens.
At the same time, WiZink Center, the home court of Real Madrid, has been already publicly offered to host a EuroLeague Final-8, as a last-minute solution in order for the season not to be canceled.
However, what remains to be seen is whether the EuroLeague will eventually resume the season, which, for the time being, has been suspended until April 11.
An answer to this question is expected in early May.