Confined, like the rest of the country, in the face of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, French professional sport is worried about its survival. If, unlike in the spring, all matches are allowed to be held – behind closed doors – each sport has had to think about the measures to be taken: to continue the season behind closed doors, even if it means accumulating losses, or interrupting the championship, lack of public and “VIP”, to reduce the risk of bankruptcy?
The National Basketball League (LNB) has chosen to maintain a partial schedule, with clubs volunteering to play behind closed doors. Among them, Asvel, figurehead of the championship, who won, Sunday, November 8, a (very) advanced match of the 21e day against Orléans (93-83). The deputy president of the Lyon club, Gaëtan Muller, fears the consequences of the crisis on French basketball.
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How are you adjusting to this uncertain time?
We have no choice: at the moment, the watchwords are “Adaptation” and ” general interest “. Like each of my colleagues, I try to preserve the interests of my club, but also those of French basketball. To play solo in such a context would be suicidal. It is the general interest which pushed us, side Asvel [Association sportive de Villeurbanne Eveil lyonnais], trying to keep playing all November, even behind closed doors, because it’s important that basketball doesn’t stop. But we are no exception when it comes to finances: we are all in deficit now.
At the moment, we are learning to navigate by sight. I am unable to say if in a month, we will no longer have containment – even if there are some trends -, or even if in six months everything will be resolved. But we must succeed in uniting and try to hold on as much as possible.
In basketball, as in all indoor sports where television rights are not important, the losses linked to closed doors are great. Are you worried?
Obviously, we have significant losses linked to the fact of not being able to receive our audience – all “Match day income” are dried up. But it’s important that our sport continues. Even without an audience, because people’s health is paramount, we wanted to set an example, by agreeing to organize matches in November. [avant la trêve internationale].
But in the medium term, this is not sustainable. If the lockdown continues beyond a month, few clubs will be able to survive. In all sports, there is something to be worried about, unless the government really helps us, as it did during the first lockdown. In particular by removing the employers’ charges, at least for the time of confinement, because in basketball our losses are considerable [estimées à 23 millions d’euros pour la saison si les restrictions d’accueil sont maintenues jusqu’en mars 2021]. In our sport, it’s impossible to play behind closed doors for a whole season.
How do you see the rest of the season, knowing that Asvel is playing in the French championship and the Euroleague?
In this time of serious crisis, there is no perfect scenario, which would solve all our problems. For some time now, there has been talk of resorting to a “Sanitary bubble”, as we have known in the NBA or for the end of the Football Champions League. The Euroleague is thinking about it, and that could also be a solution for us. On condition of finding the economic model.
The big difference between the Euroleague and the French championship is that in Europe we get TV rights – in the order of 500,000 euros per year. However, the interest of the bubble, for the Euroleague, or the NBA, it is to preserve these television rights, very important; which is not the case with our Jeep Elite [ProA]. Also, I find it hard to believe that in the French championship we put a bubble in place: without an audience, or TV rights, economically it would be complicated.
In addition, we are in an Olympic year, so shifting the calendar to hope to replay in front of the public would not be easy to implement. But this hypothesis should not be excluded. Admittedly, players likely to be called up to the French team – and therefore to participate in the Olympic Games – play in the French championship, but they are not numerous, each country being able to send only twelve players to the Olympic Games. And if we have to extend the season in summer to save French basketball, we have to think about it, collectively.
