Battlefield

The expulsion of the Khimki coach made CSKA's task easier

The capital's army team leads the final series with Khimki 2-0. The wards of head coach Ettore Messina have only one step left to take before the next Russian “gold” - May 24 or, at the very least, May 25 at the Basketball Center of the Moscow Region. The second game in the series turned out to be less interesting than the first. CSKA achieved an advantage of two dozen points in the 25th minute, and the remaining playing time essentially turned into a formality. Already at the end, when the army team had reservists on the site, the guests reduced the gap in the score. The final result is 76:64. The best scorer of the match was Erazem Lorbek from the winning team - 24 points.

The figure for spectator attendance indicated in the minutes of the first meeting on the official website of the Russian Basketball Federation is terrifying: a measly three thousand. In addition, the match commissioner determines this number, as a rule, by eye; here, obviously, another two or three hundred are added for good measure. The already small (by European standards) hall of the USC CSKA is not even two-thirds full, although the army team's rival, Khimki, is a visiting team only formally. Getting to the arena from a city near Moscow by public transport is faster than from the southern districts of the capital. Neither the price of tickets nor the financial crisis can be the reason for such a nightmarishly low attendance. You can watch the game live for 150-200 rubles, fans actively go to football games, at the hockey playoffs the stands of ten thousand palaces were crowded with the public, and even at the volleyball super final the Kazan “Basket Hall” with its 7500 seats could not accommodate everyone. .

And in Europe, basketball is not as bad as in Russia. In the Spanish ASV league, the playoffs are also currently underway, but they are still at the quarterfinal stage. Here are the data for some matches: Juventud (Badalona) - Real (Madrid) - 9828 spectators, Bilbao - Tau - 10,500, Pamesa (Valencia) - Barcelona - - 8500. The Spanish championship may be considered the strongest in Europe, but in terms of the interest of fans, Russia does not even reach the modest German championship. In the first round of the knockout tournament, Alba Berlin hosts provincial Paderborn and attracts 11,334 fans. What about the Bundesliga! Even at the championship playoff game under the auspices of the unrecognized basketball federation of Kosovo between the clubs “Bashkimi” and “Peja”, unknown to anyone in the Old World (the semi-final of the local “Technomarket League”), there were 3,500 people.

CSKA never had such problems with fans before. It is clear that Khimki fans are still disappointed by the fiasco in the decisive match of the European Cup, but the army team’s results are all right. This is an elite European club in all respects except one: half-empty stands at many home matches of high sporting significance. The “red-blue” and “Khimki” squads contain basketball players of superstar status, some of them have an annual income of six figures in dollars or euros, but now it is not clear: for whom do they play for such big money? For those three thousand who came to the final?

We have to sadly admit: the dominance of foreign players and the lack of proper work to attract fans leads to a sharp drop in the popularity rating of basketball in the country as a whole. A typical example is Kazan. The local authorities have made every effort to ensure that the football, hockey, and volleyball teams become national champions, but they have come to terms with second and third places in basketball and are not going to take any drastic measures to change the situation. The departure of European Cup broadcasts from public channels to paid satellite channels did not cause particularly violent public protests.

Even without proper support, CSKA holds the title of the best team in the country. Yesterday, the Red-Blues added forward Matjaz Smodis to their lineup, who missed the first game due to aggravation of old injuries. True, the Slovenian’s participation in the meeting turned out to be purely symbolic; he spent a few minutes on the court. Khimki’s quick capitulation was largely influenced by the egregious act of the team’s coach, Italian Sergio Scariolo. Already in the fourth minute, he received a disqualifying foul for using foul language against the referees and was expelled from the bench. Assistant helmsmen Oleg Meleshchenko and Alexey Vadeev took over the reins of the basketball players. Without a head coach, Khimki’s fighting efficiency has noticeably decreased. It is doubtful that after yesterday’s defeat there will be a full house at least in Khimki, where the stands can accommodate 3,500 people.

Ilya TRISVIATSKY