Euroleague Basketball on Wednesday celebrated its 15th anniversary at Ülker Sports Arena in Istanbul, and after the celebration, clubs met to "approve of the league's new economic distribution," according to Ricardo González of AS. Going forward, on-court results "will have more influence on the distribution of revenue." Each team, for example, will receive around €40,000 ($45,300) instead of the current sum of less than €8,000 ($9,060) per victory. The next Euroleague champion will also receive a bonus of €1M ($1.13M). In 15 years, the Euroleague has increased its number of games from 167 to 254 under the current format. In this time, there have been more than 15 rule changes "to make play more dynamic, and the TV audience has grown, per Euroleague figures, by 1,000%." Euroleague coverage was broadcast for 360 hours on 15 channels in '00. The league will be on the air 22,000 hours this season, in 201 countries. TV generates 60% of the league's total revenue, with sponsorships and advertising accounting for 30%. Euroleague's "big challenge for the '15-18 period is to increase each club's economic contribution by 47%." This "will not be an easy task." Euroleague President Jordi Bertomeu said, "This is a very special day and Ülker Arena symbolizes the evolution of the competition in the last 15 years. More sponsors joining Euroleague is a signal of strength, but we have not become complacent, because there is ambition to keep growing. Now we have better, more dynamic games and we want clubs to create a better atmosphere to attract more fans" (AS, 5/6).
