Spanish Basketball League Drops Bilbao Basket; '14-15 Season To Feature 17 Clubs

The Spanish Basketball League (ACB) "will feature 17 teams after the ACB decided on Friday to drop Bilbao Basket from the league for economic reasons and not fill its place with a club from the LEB [second division]," according to Roger Pascual of EL PERIODICO. Without sponsors and with a debt of approximately €6M ($8M), Bilbao "seems condemned to bankruptcy." This means "every game day will see one team have a day off." The ACB also confirmed Andorra's promotion. Bilbao President Xabier Jon Davalillo said, "We have done everything in our power to take this forward, the institutions have supported us until the last minute to look for a solution. It wasn't to be, but we will  continue working to keep top-level basketball in Bilbao." Davalillo added, "We have asked for extra time to reach the amount of money that we almost had and they told us no" (EL PERIODICO, 7/19).