Basketball Ireland enjoyed its biggest night of the year on Saturday when a 2,000 strong sell out audience packed the National Basketball Arena for the National Cup Finals.
UCC Demons and Team Montenotte Hotel Glanmire made it a double for Cork teams over their Dublin rivals Killester and UCD Marian but the real winner was the sport.
A new TV deal with TG4 meant live prime time TV coverage across the country and a number of potential sponsors of the sport in attendance on the night can only have been impressed by the noise and colour of the fans, even if both of the games proved to be relatively one sided.
One notable addition this year was the work done on the long avenue leading to the arena. The new surfacing was one thing but especially noteworthy were the banners of all the basketball clubs that compete in the top levels of the sport.
It was well remembered that while there is only one Men’s and one Women’s winner on the night, the community stretches much further.
Basketball Ireland CEO Bernard O’Byrne, writing in the programme for the night spoke of the 1.5 million page views on Basketball Ireland’s website in the past year, of the 300,000 readers of the weekly coverage in the Irish Daily Star and 40,000 viewers each week of the TG4 Highlights programme.
The year ahead was highlighted as well with a special presentation to the 3×3 Women’s basketball team, including Grainne Dwyer, (pictured above) that has qualified to compete in the first European Olympics in Baku and the Irish Special Olympics Women’s team who will play in Los Angeles this summer also present.
With Live NBA action now more readily available through BT Sport on Setanta, Basketball fans have never had it so good, and the quality of the home offering is rising all the time.
