On July 14, VTB United League Board meeting was held in TASS press centre. It was continued by press conference with League’s honorary president Sergey Ivanov, president Sergey Kushchenko and general director Ilona Korstin,
Below are the main quotes by League’s honorary president Sergey Ivanov:
2020 Board of the League meeting format and key decisions
Online meetings in a form of video conference have already become everyday routine for me. We were forced to do so with the Board meeting as we had no options left.
Key decision is re-election of the president and general director of the League; my congratulations. We approved the calendar draft: we start on September 20. The beginning is earlier this time, and there are 2 reasons. First of all, the Olympics were postponed to 2021 and European leagues have to finish before June 15 as requested by FIBA. Furthermore, this time the Board unanimously voted for best-of-five series.
The only question left is the attendance. We don’t know yet if we’ll have empty stands, half-capacity or full. Unfortunately, we are not to decide it.
Just like one year ago, all the clubs confirmed participation. We’ve had no new applications.
COVID-19 influence on new applications
No, the virus has nothing to do with it. It’s just that we haven’t received any requests. The candidates now read the regulations more carefully, and everything is stated very clearly: requirements for the arena, club’s responsibility, guarantees including financial. I believe, that we wouldn’t have any candidates even without coronavirus.
Premature termination of the season
I think this decision was absolutely correct. We’ve become the first professional league to make professional decision. And the proof is that many other professional leagues, including Euroleague, made the same decision afterwards.
Clubs’ and United League budgets
This is crucial for us. I have good news: not only all VTB League sponsors have confirmed continuation, but they also maintain the financial amounts. And we appreciate it. However, we don’t sit idle and continue the search for new partners.
Speaking of clubs’ budgets after COVID-19 pandemic, you’d better address the clubs themselves. At the same time, the leaks are already there. For example, CSKA plans to cut down by 20%. I hope other clubs’ cuts are minimal, if any.
Regarding budgets disclosure, today, I’ve warned all the Board memebers again that they have to submit full budgets for the past season by September. 2020/21 season budgets will be published in September 2021 accordingly. That’s one special thing about VTB League: we are the only Russian sports league to reveal clubs’ budgets fully, and I assure you, we’ll always do that.
Moreover, we’re the only world’s sports league to play with eco-friendly ball. The Basketbottle project allowed us to do so. We’ve played a season with ecoball, and received no objections from clubs regarding the ball’s quality. It means, projects like this can continue to help sports and ecology.
Another 4-year period of VTB League
I have no intention to bore you with numbers, so I’ll name two figures. First of all, 2019/20 season attendance – without playoffs – grew by 8% compared to the previous season that had playoffs.
Secondly, the amount of sponsorship funds distributed to clubs by sports and marketing criteria has increased within the last 4 years. It means the clubs have more interest to stay in VTB League as it’s the way to make profit.
Board of the League 2020: In 2020/21 13 teams will play, season starts on September 20
