BANGKOK (Thailand) - The hosting of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2023 Division B in Bangkok, Thailand brings FIBA basketball back to the South East Asian nation.

There’s already excitement and high anticipation in the air as the host aim for promotion back to Division A with the home court support at their advantage. The return to Bangkok also adds to the ample history FIBA basketball has in Thailand.

Return after 26 years

The Women’s Asia Cup 2023 Division B games will be played at the historic Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. The prominent venue is a part of the National Stadium complex, located in one of the busiest parts of the city.

The venue has also hosted many competitions in the past, among those including many Asian Games (1966, 1970, and 1978) as well as the 2007 Summer Universiade.

A part of Nimibutr Stadium’s rich history is several FIBA competitions, too.

In particular, this will be the return of the Women’s Asia Cup to Nimibutr Stadium, as it was also the host venue for the 1997 edition of the competition. In that year, Korea won their 10th Women’s Asia Cup, Thailand maintained their spot in Division A, and Kazakhstan went undefeated to end up at the top of Division B.

Prior to that, Asia Cup 1987 and the U18 Asian Championship in 1980 was also hosted at the Nimibutr Stadium as well.

Asia Basketball in Thailand

The Women’s Asia Cup 2023 Division B making a return to Nimibutr Stadium also adds on to the lengthy history of FIBA Asia competitions being hosted in Thailand.

At the senior national team level, the Asia Cup has been hosted in Thailand on 3 occasions: 1987 (as mentioned), 1975, and 1969, all in Bangkok.

The Women’s Asia Cup has also been played in Thailand three times, albeit in three different venues. After the competition was played at Nimibutr Stadium in 1997, the Women’s Asia Cup was then situated at Hua Mark Indoor Stadium in 2001, and the Thai-Japanese Youth Center in 2013.

Thailand have been active at the youth level as well. The nation has hosted several youth competitions in the past, for both men’s and women’s basketball. After 1980, the U18 Asian Championship returned to play in Thailand not long ago in 2018 at Stadium29 in Nonthaburi.

The U18 Women’s Asian Champions have been played a whopping five times in Thailand: 1980, 1996, 2007, 2010, and 2016. Notably, the 2010 edition of the competition was played relatively far from the nation’s capital of Bangkok in Suratthani, a large city in the southern part of Thailand.

Hosting young women of the world

Among one of the other main highlights of FIBA basketball in Thailand are the two times when the nation hosted the FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cups in 2009 and 2019. Both times, the games were played at the Thai-Japanese Youth Center.

This made Thailand the second country from Asia to host the competition and the first country to host the competition twice (with Spain hosting their second U19 Women’s World Cup this year).

USA won the championship both times in Bangkok. Nneka Ogwumike posted a historic 22-point, 20-rebound game to beat Spain in 2009, while Paige Bueckers had to fend off the Australia Sapphires in overtime to earn their title in 2019.

“[Hosting these events] has improved us in terms of the interest in the sport, inspiring new fans or even new players by having these games played in Thailand,” said BSAT president Nipondh Chavalitmontien in 2019. “A lot of the younger generation are already choosing basketball as their favored sport and training to get better and better.”

FIBA