Lithuania’s second-biggest city will host the 2023 EuroLeague Final Four next May, the basketball club Žalgiris said in a press release on Monday.
“The Žalgirio Arena will host the EuroLeague Final Four on May 19-21” which will be a milestone for the country and the city of Kaunas, the press release said.
Žalgiris Kaunas director Paulius Motiejūnas described the decision to hold the EuroLeague Final Four in Kaunas as the “highest level of appreciation”.
“We have been striving for years to host this prestigious event in our country, so we are even more pleased that our efforts have been appreciated. We are grateful to Kaunas city municipality, which supported our ambition and enthusiastically agreed to contribute to the success of this tournament,” he said.
The size of the municipality’s contribution was not disclosed.
The club earlier asked the Lithuanian government to provide 1 million euros to support the city’s bid to host the Euroleague Final Four but the cabinet rejected the request in autumn.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Sport then explained that “the government cannot afford allocating money for this event as the country is going through difficult times”.
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