CBA teams looking to save money, play season without foreigners / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: sina.com.cn Credit sina.com.cn

Last week, there were reports from the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) that most of its teams favored playing the upcoming season without foreign players. Doing so would allow a regular home/away schedule (and spectators in arenas) instead of playing in bubbles to avoid the spread of Coronavirus. Only five (out of 20) teams prefer to have the season with foreign players.

BasketNews sources in China confirmed the development of such a scenario. CBA clubs have been participating in the competition without spectators for a year and a half now, which undoubtedly created negative financial repercussions. In addition to lost gate receipts, private sponsors have also diminished or even cut their spending on CBA teams. According to some estimates, each club could save about ¥30 million (almost €4M) a year by not employing foreign players.

Among the teams that prefer to have foreigners are the ones supported by large state monopolies. Their budgets have not shrunk as they had for other teams and sponsors affected by the COVID-19. According to the BasketNews source, the fifth club was the association's newest member, who simply abstained from the vote.

It appears that the majority of the clubs realize that there would be unequal strength among teams if the foreigners were allowed to participate next season. As a result, the CBA will likely approve such a rule to allow its teams to recover within a year.

Stay tuned as more information becomes available. But in such a case, many high-level players would need to seek jobs elsewhere, Europe becoming one of the more attractive destinations.

Like what we are doing? You can express your gratitude here.