On September 11 the VTB Arena hosted a press conference dedicated to the opening of the budgets of the VTB League teams of the 2023/24 season. It was attended by president Sergey Kushchenko and General Director Ilona Korstin.
In first place in terms of budget amount is Zenit – 2 billion 257 million rubles. Also in the top 3 are CSKA (2 billion 143 million rubles) and Lokomotiv Kuban (1 billion 473 million rubles). Then come UNICS (1 billion 356 million rubles), Samara (579 million rubles), Pari Nizhny Novgorod (528 million rubles), PARMA (458 million rubles), MBA (378 million rubles), Uralmash (347 million rubles), Enisey (338 million rubles) and Avtodor (233 million rubles).
The press conference also discussed other issues concerning the activities of the League and its partners.
Sergey Kushchenko, VTB League President:
– Zenit has the biggest budget in the United League: 2 billion 257 million rubles. CSKA is second, Loko is third, and UNICS is fourth.
These 4 reached the Semifinals last season.
Avtodor, Enisey, and Uralmash had the smallest budgets last season. Interestingly, despite this, Uralmash made the Playoffs in its first season in the League from the 7th place and gave a real fight to Zenit, losing in 5 games. As we saw, it’s players, not budgets, that play.
Advertising and sponsorship revenues remained almost at the same level as last season – all key sponsors are with us, for which we thank them very much. Total expenses, including administrative costs, have been increased by 34%, with the VTB League cost increased by 50%. Payments to referees and commissioners were increased for the 2023/24 season. In order to improve the quality of refereeing, expensive equipment was purchased – a unified video-replay system for referees and sent to the teams. The prize fund was also increased by 30%. Taxes and fees have increased by 27% due to higher revenues.
The League will approve the number of internationals on its own. So far we will not change anything. But the legislation allows us to do so. But now, in our opinion, the limit is optimal.
We are considering the option of holding the VTB League Super Cup in Serbia. Such option exists.
As part of the SuperCup, our partners KES-Basket are holding the same international cup for the second time. They have 8 countries, and a Turkish team came. This is a unique competition. On Thursday there will be KES-Basket friendly game. Only VTB League keeps the international agenda at such a level that such teams come and such competitions are held in Russia.
Ilona Korstin, VTB League General Director:
– Our budget shows that ticket revenue increased last year compared to previous seasons. This is primarily due to more games. We also hold marketing seminars every time, where marketers of all team participate, we discuss problems and pressing issues. Teams representatives said that ticket sales were not growing because we put games on inconvenient days. We started to put games on convenient days for the teams’ fans.
There is no prize money in the SuperCup. Participation in this tournament is considered as a bonus, because this season there will be no more opportunities to play with teams from the Euroleague and EuroCup. We invite our international participants and provide them with accommodation and logistics, which is also a lot of money that the League spends on the tournament.
And international teams also want to play with our teams. This is also an opportunity for them to play with opponents of such a high level. Now the game between UNICS and Besiktas is over, and how easily UNICS handled the opponent. So we can say that UNICS is a Euroleague-level team. I’m sure that the experience of playing with UNICS was good for Besiktas.
