“Respecting the clubs and the leagues, we must shrink our calendar and have a Final Eight. We are approaching this current Final Eight with the presumption that we’re not going to be able to have spectators in the arenas.
That raises several questions: what is the best environment, what is the best host if we’re not gonna be having fans. We’re in constant communication with the 16 clubs; we are providing them information on what we call host terms and conditions so that all the documents necessary will be ready for the event. We believe [hosting the Final Eight] is an opportunity.
In today’s environment, it will often take the support of local governments to assist a club. We believe that good cooperation with national and local authorities is essential. We’re very excited about the prospects this year, we know we’re gonna have a lot of interest. Clubs are now evaluating the documents and we will have the initial reaction by the last week of February. They need to come back to us and say ‘Yes, we remain interested’. At this point, we will have the initial list of candidates.
We don’t have an intention to reduce the prize money. But in today’s world, adjusting and being flexible is becoming second nature. Let’s look at everything day by day, but our intention for 2020-21 is to not impact the clubs negatively.”