“We look further, with some running we will go back”

Kauhajoki Karhubasket has already advanced to the top four in the FIBA ​​Europe Cup. The goal is to go all the way to the end.

On Wednesday, Kauhajoki Karhubasket advanced to the semifinals of the basketball FIBA ​​Europe Cup. In the past, only Finnish teams have made it to the top four in the FIBA ​​EuroCup Challenge series of Lappeenranta NMKY in the 2005–06 season.

– It is a big deal for us that there has been such great success at the European level as well. This has of course been requested and our new arena creates the framework for success. We play the Korisliiga and the European games with the same standard, there is no need to do bigger things regarding the arena, the president of Karhubasket Vesa Ojala stated.

Hailed as Finland’s finest basketball arena, Karhubasket’s new home cave was inaugurated in the fall. There are about 2,500 seats in the stands and the facilities are at their last.

Financially, the FIBA ​​Europe Cup is not a money grab for Bearbasket, on the contrary.

– The money does not move in the direction of the clubs at all. Clubs pay for playing from their own pockets. It’s expensive, but we’re looking into it further. The way we see it is that we have invested in the arena and our goal is in the Euro arenas. Now there will be costs, but with some running, it will come back, Ojala said.

However, Ojala specifies that the winner of the series will receive 5,000 euros.

– Relative to the expense item, it’s a pretty minimal return. One pair of matches costs us around 20,000 euros.

The successful team and the new hall have brought spectators to the games as well.

– In Korisliiga, the audience target was 1,400 spectators per match and it seems to have been exceeded. Wednesday’s match against Porto had 2,075 spectators.

“Nothing but to the end”

Karhubasket has played 14 matches in the FIBA ​​Europe Cup and won 12 of them. It is interesting that all seven away matches have been victorious.

– It shows how professionally the team is able to be on the trip. It is a well-planned and disciplined activity. It brings a certain kind of concentration and the result has come. It also requires a bit of luck, we have won a few games by a point. At home, we have lost two games, one of which had no contribution, Ojala stated.

Bearbasket will face Poland’s Wloclawek in the semi-finals, a familiar opponent already from the first group. That’s when Karhubasket won another match – away, of course – and lost another. The semi-finals will be played at the end of March and the beginning of April. The latter match is in Kauhajoki.

So at least a place in the finals seems completely possible. The goal of bear basketball is to win the entire competition.

– The idea has been to go as far as possible. When the second round started, I got the feeling that there was nothing to do but to the end. Ojala decided.