Tampere is looking for a continuation of the great success of the European Championships in Helsinki. More than half a century has passed since the last European Championships in Tampere.
Tampere will host the 2025 European Basketball Championships for the first time in 58 years. Susijengi has chosen Tampere as the host city for its own initial block of the EC home games and the Tampere arena in the center of the city as its home cave.
Finland has fresh memories of the 2017 EC competitions, one of the initial groups of which was organized in Helsinki.
– We organized a memorable basketball party in Helsinki a few years ago and now it is a pleasure to have a similar historic opportunity in Tampere as well, Secretary General of the Finnish Games Organization for the upcoming European Championships Ari Tammivaara thanks in the announcement.
The first group of the 2025 European Championships in Tampere will be played at the Tampere Arena, which also serves as the stage for the World Ice Hockey Championships. Susigengi made its debut in the arena last August, when it defeated Israel in the World Cup qualifying match in front of 11,554 spectators.
Tampere’s expectations are high
The selection of the competition city has a historical basis. When Finland hosted its first European basketball championships in the fall of 1967, Tampere was one of the host cities along with Helsinki.
– More than half a century has already passed since the last European Championships in Tampere, so expectations are high, rejoices the events director of the city of Tampere Perttu Pesä in the bulletin.
In addition to Tampere, Riga in Latvia, Limassol in Cyprus and a city in Poland to be announced in November have been chosen as the initial block cities of the 2025 European Championship. The tournament culminates in the elimination and medal games played in Riga.
Susijengi finished seventh in the European Championships played in Prague and Berlin last fall. The ranking was the second best ever for the Finnish men’s national team.
The next European Championship will be played in August-September 2025.
A model of the great success of the European Championships in Helsinki
Finland hosted its first European basketball championships in fifty years in the fall and summer of 2017, when Susijengi took Helsinki’s EC opening group to the Helsinki Arena in Pasila.
The games gathered 88,000 spectators, of which, according to a study commissioned by FIBA, there were almost sixteen thousand international guests. Susigengi covered France, Poland, Greece and Iceland in their matches in the first group and only fell narrowly to Slovenia, which progressed undefeated to the European Championship gold medals.
The EC basketball home games were chosen as the sports event of 2017 at the Sports Gala and as the consumer event of the year at the international Evento Awards.