IBB Hotels Menorca Basquet is going to be the first team ever of the Baleares Islands to play in the second most prestigous first league of Basketball in the world (after the US NBA), the Spanish ACB!”.
In a breathtaking 4. leg in the semi-finals of the play offs IBB Hotels beat Caja de León and qualified for the final, which is played on Friday at 21:00 against Fuenlabrada of Madrid in Madrid.
Both teams are now automatically qualified for the ACB League and teams such as Unicaja, Tau, Real Madrid and Barcelona are now ahead of IBB Hotels in the forthcoming season.
The entry into the ACB will catapult not just IBB Hotels Menorca Basquet but also the island of Menorca into a different sphere in terms of public awareness. Everyone could feel a taste of the excitement when the heros of Menorca Basquet returned from León. They were celebrated by more than 5.000 enthusiastic Menorquins and residents on the Main Square of Mahón.
Both the local Island Government and the Government of the Balearic Islands have immediately signalled to support IBB Hotels Menorca Basquet with considerable sums of money in order to guarantee the license of playing in ACB and meet other requirements which are necessary to fulfil all conditions which are imperative to play in the first Basketball League of Spain. Also IBB Llanera, a company related to IBB Hotels, has tentatively committed for the season of 2005/2006 to be the main sponsor again, by quadrupling it’s annual sponsorship contribution to the Club.
The ascend of IBB Hotels to ACB can be considered to be one of the most spectacular sport achievement in the history of the Baleares, right after Real Mallorca’s entry into the Premier Football League in Spain in the year 2000 and rising star Tennis star Rafael Nadal of Mallorca.
The success of IBB Menorca Basquet is closely linked to the excellent work of the entire Management Board of the club, the devoted work of the president, José Luis Sintes and his team as well the players, who showed with their passionate way of playing that the Menorquin spectators have deserved to witness the ascend of the Club.
IBB Hotels is proud to be associated with such an achievement and excellent team, which probably has had the most enthusiastic fans and supporters throughout the whole season.
Selected press articles:
http://ariadna.elmundo.es
