Spain - The Eurobasket 2007 Organizational Committee approves the promotional plan

From: www.feb.es
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The Eurobasket 2007 Organizational Committee for the European basketball tournament met in Seville to analize different elements of the event, with only 9 months to go until inauguration. The site of Seville hosted the meeting, where the mayor of Seville, Alfredo Sánchez de Monteseirin was present. The event was held in the Colón Hall of Seville´s City Hall.
 
After the work session, President José Luis Sáez and the committee approved the promotion plan of EuroBasket 2007, announced the date of the presentation of the web site of the tournament (December 20th), and discussed topics such as the television rights of the games and the ticket sales. All groups which make up this committee were present at the event, including FIBA Europe, whose general secretary, Nar Zanolin, attended every session.

The approved promotional plan will kick off numerous activities which will run until the tournament begins on Spetember 3rd in the five host cities: Alicante, Granada, Palma de Mallorca, Madrid and Seville. The first event of the campaign will be seen at the 3 Kings Day Parade. All five cities will have a float which will send the message to all the that this European basketball tournament is approaching.

The organization is producing around 40,000 small basketballs with the EuroBasket 2007 logo, which will be thrown from the floats, along with the traditional candies for the kids.
Sáez has said that when possible, ¨The tickets sales policies will be decided upon, since right now we are waiting on information about seating capacity in the facilities.¨

A few of the sports centers chosen need slight modifications, and the Velodrome of Palma is in the last phase of construction.

The committee president hopes that at the next meeting, set for February 7th in Alicante, that the ticket sales commercialization policies can be set. ¨I hope we don´t disappoint ourselves as far as the expectations of all of the people who want to be present at EuroBasket 2007”.

The committee informed of three operators interested in buying the television rights of the tournament, and mentioned to the FIBA Europe general secretary the necessity of signing an agreement as soon as possile. ¨For us, knowing as soon as possible who the operator is, and what strategy plans they have, is vital. If we could know this before the year ends it would be great news,¨ Sáez added.

The EuroBasket 2007 host cities informed of management and event organization, emphasizing that all is being done within the set time frames, including in the city of Palma, whose facility is currently being constructed. The doors are to be opened in January 20th, which coinicides with feast day of San Sebastián, patron saint of the city. The official inauguration is to coincide with the first match of the world championship indoor cycling tournament, to be held in Palma on March 29th.

The local committee in Alicante will be introduced on January 9th. The location of Palma will work with a small local group in Mahón to carry out the classification tournament set up, which will be held in the last days of August to determine the 16th team to enter the European tournament. The winner of this tournment will play in Granada, along with Greece, Russia and Serbia, according to the drawing results of last October.

At the end of January, the Superior Security Commission will be formed, once the five host cities form their own committees.

Upon finishing the meeting, Zanolin seemed very satisfied with the work session. He said, ¨We want this to be best tournamnet ever organized. We are very calm in the hands of the Spanish Basketball Federation, whose members maintain very good relations. This confidence makes me think that everything will turn out well.¨