EuroBasket 2007 may be still well over one year away, but those fans who wish to follow their teams to Spain are already being promised a warm welcome by basketball officials.

“We can offer excellent tourism, combined with great basketball, good organization, accommodation for all budgets and great transport connections,” says Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Chief Jose Montero.

“And don’t forget our wonderful Spanish hospitality,” he adds with a smile.

Spain is certainly no stranger to putting on major sporting events. It hosted EuroBasket in 1973 and 1997, and has organized a myriad of other leading competitions in recent years, including of course the 1992 Olympic Games.

		Sergio Rodriguez could be a star at EuroBasket 2007

Basketball holds a special place in Spain’s national sporting identity. The ACB has long been recognized as the world’s number one league outside of the NBA and the national team has won medals at three of the four last EuroBaskets.

With established stars like Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro as well as up-and-coming talents Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez, hopes and expectations for the hosts are high for 2007.

“There is a huge amount of interest and emotion in Spain for EuroBasket,” says Montero.

“People are very proud and excited that Europe’s top basketball competition is coming to Spain and of course it is a huge honour for the Spanish Basketball Federation.”

While the Spanish coaching staff have the task of putting together a team capable of challenging for the EuroBasket title, it is up to Montero and his team to make sure everything runs smoothly off the court.

“The key for us is that the dates have now been confirmed and the Finals will be hosted in Madrid,” says Montero.

After principally agreeing to host the tournament from 7-16 September, the Spanish Federation elected to extend the dates of the event a further four days. EuroBasket 2007 will now take place from 3 – 16 September, and the extra four days will allow the LOC to maximize the event’s exposure.

Work is due to take place on all of the venues, with Palma de Mallorca getting a brand new arena to be completed by March 2007 in time to host the World Indoor Cycling Track Championship.

Other first round venues Seville, Granada and Alicante will all undergo renovations, while the final will be hosted in Madrid at the Felipe II Sports Centre. The Madrid arena holds 15,000 spectators and was the venue for the 2006 Copa del Rey.

Spain will host two FIBA Europe Youth events in 2006 (European Championships for U18 Women and U16 Men) and both will be used to test various aspects of organising a EuroBasket, including the accreditation system, transport and security.

In addition, each of the EuroBasket 2007 preliminary round venues will host test events next summer.

“The cities have been working really well and their cooperation with the LOC is great - we are very happy with the progress so far,” says Montero.

“From our side, we will employ five more full-time staff at our office in the next month. Our promotion campaign will kick off after the EuroBasket 2007 Draw later this year when we will launch the official event web site.”