The year that reminded us huge crowds make international basketball a lot better
VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - The year 2015 is almost in the books. It's almost done and dusted.
For European basketball, 2015 was about a lot of things. It was about dunks, three-pointers, fast-breaks, steals and swats. It was about 12 months of highs and lows. It was about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
More than anything, the year was about the revelation, or the reconfirmation, that the international game is so much better when arenas are filled with fans. We got a strong dose of crowd noise since EuroBasket 2015 was staged in France, Germany, Croatia and Latvia.
There were fans all over, including the Baltics. In Riga, the fans of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania created a spectacle. The Lithuanians also travelled in big numbers for the knockout round.
Yes, we were reminded that an event needs good teams, outstanding players and most important, a lot of fans. By having four host nations, there was a guarantee of big audiences, at least for the games played by the home teams.
I went to the beautiful Mediterranean city of Montpellier to watch defending champions France stage Group A. Finland, the same Finland that took thousands of fans to Bilbao for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, were among the opponents.
What am I going to remember from 2015? For starters, opening night of the EuroBasket, the 5th of September, at the Arena de Montpellier, when the Susijengi squared off against the French in one of the best EuroBasket games I've ever watched.
The crowd was incredible, and so was the game.
A total of 10,407 spectators piled into the arena for that game. There were 10,564 who showed up to watch France beat Russia four nights later.
There were big numbers to watch games in Berlin, Zagreb and Riga, too. There was a basketball festival in Europe as fans watched some of the greatest players ever to hail from the old continent trade blows.
When the party moved to Lille's Pierre Mauroy Stadium, the home of France's top flight football team, the noise grew louder.
A capacity crowd was supposed to be around 27,000 fans for those games. The Round of 16 game on 12 September between France and Turkey had 26,135 fans go through turnstiles, a number that broke the previous record for an indoor European basketball crowd of 24,232.
That figure had been established only last year, when Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) played Budivelnik Kyiv in the Eurocup Quarter-Finals on 26 March.
There was then a new record crowd for the France v Spain EuroBasket Semi-Final, with 26,922 fans. And if anyone had worried that Spain had let the air out of the balloon by beating the French, well, they were wrong.
On the last day of the tournament, the 20th of September, 27,372 spectators watched as Pau Gasol led Spain to a convincing triumph over Lithuania. In all, there were 711,131 spectators to watch EuroBasket games, with the last couple played on 20 September.
The EuroBasket was a major success.
The only disappointment for me was that the tournament had to end. The good news is that the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 will also be played in four countries with Finland, Israel, Romania and Turkey hosting Group Phase Games, and Turkey staging the Final Round.
The EuroBasket reconfirmed that fan involvement is the biggest ingredient for success for any sport. The players take their level of play to new heights when they are charged up in big-time atmospheres.
Countries are crying out to watch their teams play basketball games. That's why come November 2017, international basketball is going to take a huge step forward when all over the world, fans are going to pile into gyms or arenas or stadiums to watch their national teams play under FIBA's new system of competition.
Over a four-year cycle from 2017 through 2021, national teams will play regular home and away games to qualify for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2021 FIBA Continental Cups.
It won't just happen in Europe, but all over the world. What the 2015 basketball year showed us is that this is going to be huge. So folks, no matter what country you live in, get ready for the party.
Jeff Taylor
FIBA
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