Milas: “With 12 or 13 teams the new Basket League – Waiting for Tritona and Maroussi”

The first files have been filed, but it is still unclear if Maroussi and Triton they will manage to gather the necessary conditions for participation in the new Basketball League. The treasurer of ESAKE and president of Prometheus, Christos Milas, speaking on EEC radio, emphasized that the new category will have 12 or 13 teams, but until this is clarified, the system that will become the new league cannot be clear either. He said in detail:

Regarding the situation in which they are in ESAKE: “At the moment what we are waiting for is the catalyst date, so we are currently moving that both Maroussi and Triton will be with us in the new year. From there, it is up to the Licensing Committee to review the files. There are many issues that we have to see and we have to see them immediately, because the groups have to plan and make a calendar. There will certainly be surprises, but we must be prepared for them as well. We have made several predictions and studied several scenarios. All the teams, however, wish for the continuous improvement of the championship”.

For whom they consider a desirable number of teams: “At the moment we also have some licensing stages which also concern the teams that are already in the Basket League. The logic says that if they all pass we will go to the 13 teams, but if in the next stages some team doesn’t make it, I don’t think we will go then to complete a team and we will go with the ones that are left. The desired number that we have said as a Basket League is 12 teams, but at the moment we have these data and they have thus arisen from the various difficulties presented to teams every year, we have reached this point. I think that by the end of July the picture will be clear”.

For the format of the new season in the Basket League: “At the moment there have been discussions about various more competitive formats. If we sit down and look at them calendar-wise, because we also have to take into account the European competitions, the format change we are discussing concerns 12 teams. With 13 teams, this does not work out in time, we will go to something else. In the 13 teams we are looking at alternative scenarios and we will be ready in a short time, once we have the data, to talk about it”.

On whether there is consideration for a play-out: “There are various thoughts, but the format, along with the 12 teams we say, keeps the interest undiminished until the last matchday for all the teams. We all know what is at stake, so this combined with some regulations that we have to anticipate and change, it is imperative that there is competition.”

For the regulation with foreigners for the new season: “One part that has been set is for the teams to choose 6 out of the 7 foreigners, another is that a foreign player, like in the other leagues, can go from one Greek team to another, just there we will have to see the limits . The third piece is how long a team can make changes. We will discuss all this.”

On whether there is mobility for a key sponsor: “Essentially, after the March elections, I believe that there is a strong mobility and another dynamic regarding the executive part of ESAKE. Last year we did not find a central sponsor because we did not have the offers we wanted, although we had proposals. Right now we are on a very good track, we are in very good discussions with various stakeholders. There will certainly be income for the teams from the sponsors of the championship. In the next two weeks, around the middle of July, we will have a B.D. where all the plans and agreements we have managed to have until then will be presented. So then there will be the first picture of what we want to walk. It will be very detailed, everyone will know about it, and this will decide the presidency of ESAKE in the next elections”.

To move Prometheus to BCL: “Every year competitively we could participate in the BCL, but it was our choice to participate in the EuroCup. Right now we had to weigh the facts and look more generally at the future. Essentially, we see that a union of the BCL with the EuroCup is progressing and from next year we may have progress on this part. The other part is that we now estimate that the two events in terms of capacity are now at the same level. On the other hand, because we now have the experience of both competitions, the promotion part definitely played a bigger role and secondly that there are many games in the BCL and every game is interesting now. And in the EuroCup it has, the sports fan just doesn’t realize this interest”.

For the selection of Ilias Papatheodorou for the bench of Prometheus: “We analyzed the plan we want to follow and we wanted to do it with a person who will believe in it and move forward with us having the data of the time at the moment. Elias agreed with the plan we want to follow. For us who have also had the “NOUS” program all these years, I think it was the appropriate solution to help us achieve the goal we want. The goals that have been set are not only competitive.”