Kaunas is preparing to host the Euroleague Final Four at the end of May. Almost all the city’s hotels have been booked, with around 9,000 foreign fans expected to come watch the game.
There will be no empty seats in the Žalgiris Arena on the penultimate weekend in May, with tickets sold out in nine hours after going on sale and 600 more to be allocated to each of the teams in the Final Four.
“I guess you could say that these are the events where the Euroleague makes its budget for the year. As for the city, if 12,000 people will be there to watch the game, we can estimate that 8,000-9,000 of them will be foreigners,” Mantas Vedrickas, head of event organisation at the Žalgiris Arena, told LRT TV.
Žalgiris Kaunas, the city’s decorated basketball club, has been trying to host the Euroleague Final Four in their home city for more than a decade.
The Euroleague Final Four in Kaunas will start on May 19. The semi-finals will take place on Friday, May 19, and the final match will be played on Sunday evening, May 21.
Kaunas hotels say reservations started pouring in last October, as soon as the city was mentioned among the candidates to host the Euroleague games.
Euroleague itself has booked seven big hotels in Kaunas, says Vedrickas.
Fans may have to look for accommodation around the city or even in Vilnius.
“Tonight we have received several cancellations, so we have some rooms, but as soon as they become available, there are already people who want to book. The majority of the guests are coming from Greece, then we have reservations from Turkey and Israel,” says Inga Zimkevičiūtė, director of the hotel Kaunas.
Kaunas restaurants, bars, and nightclubs are also waiting for basketball fans.
“It would be great if there were some more events after the games and people had somewhere to go. It could be public concerts, some entertainment, something to attract people to stay in the city,” says Lukas Zobovas, director of the nightclub Mistika.
A fan zone is to be set up on Vienybės Square, and Kaunas Municipality, which has allocated more than 1.5 million euros to organise the Euroleague Final Four, expects that fans will spend over 3 million euros over the four days.
“The Euroleague expects to sell at least 4-million-euros worth of tickets, with VAT paid in Lithuania, which means that almost 800,000 euros will go to the state budget for tickets alone. According to various surveys, 62 percent of fans who come to the host city recommend a visit to their friends. This could be a kind of domino effect,” says Tadas Metelionis, director of Kaunas Municipality Administration.
The Euroleague Final Four will be broadcast by LRT.
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