League starts as a goodwill gesture
The basketball league will start after all on October 22 as organizer ESAKE decided on October 18 to give the go-ahead signal as a goodwill gesture.
It did warn, however, that unless a television contract is secured next week the league will be suspended indefinitely.
The start of the 2011-12 season in Greece has already been delayed as most top-flight clubs are still without a deal for TV coverage.
Panathinaikos and Olympiakos, the two most expensive and wealthy teams, are the only ones to have already inked a deal with state broadcaster ERT, worth 1.3 million euros and 1.25 million euros respectively.
On October 26 ESAKE?s board will meet again to discuss the situation and see whether there has been a proposal from ERT, or another broadcaster, in order to decide whether the league will continue from October 29 or not.
Tuesday’s decision was the result of pressure from the federation’s strongman, Giorgos Vassilakopoulos, who said the league must start as soon as possible so as to avoid any problems in the preparations of the national team next spring ahead of the pre-Olympic tournament in July.
The money from television rights is the main source of revenues for most of the A1 clubs, along with the sponsorship deal with state gaming company OPAP.
