Countdown begins to 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four!

The six-month countdown to the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four began on Friday with a press conference in the host city, Barcelona, to announce the imminent start of tickets sales for the event. Euroleague Basketball CEO Jordi Bertomeu joined Barcelona's mayor, Jordi Hereu to promise the best Final Four yet in a city that has proven itself a world leader time and again at hosting major international sporting events. Barcelona successfully held a Final Four previously in 2003, when the local Euroleague representative and current champion, Regal FC Barcelona, won its first continental title. That season's final set what was then a Final Four attendance record with 16,670 fans at Palau Sant Jordi, which will be the venue for the 2011 event, too. The 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four will be held from May 6 to 8, culmination with the title-game to crown the 2010-11 season champion!

"I want to thank the city of Barcelona for their warm welcome, as always" Mr. Bertomeu told the assembled media at Barcelona's city hall. "In July we came here to do something unusual which is announcing a change of Final Four city. Then, the city offered us all the help we needed and we have to be thankful for that. Since then we have been doing things about the organization to make sure that the event will be a success in May. This is great projection for the city because for eight weeks now, the name of Barcelona has been visible to households from all around the world in our broadcasted games. It's important to remember that the Final Four are four basketball games with four basketball teams, but also much more. In 2003 the Final Fours entered a new era with the one we did in Barcelona, taking the quality level up a notch. We want the same thing to happen in 2011, and that is why we will have the classic Nike International Junior Tournament, we will have social awareness programs in the Barcelona neighborhoods, we want to integrate the whole city into our sport, we also want to organize a basketball fair around Palau Sant Jordi during the days of the event, we will have events with the Special Olympics, and we are also working on a benefit concert. These are all projects we are working on to ensure that, again, the Final Four in Barcelona is a big success."

"It is an honor for Barcelona to welcome once again the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four," Mayor Jordi Hereu said. "Barcelona is a city which has a vocation for sports, especially basketball, which has been massively practiced in our city for decades. I can say that personally as a father, too. In Barcelona we like to organize these international sporting events because we have experience and ambition to express what we are throug sports. It's through this philosophy that we want to project our city to the world. We hosted the Final Four in 2003, and will again in 2011 and we will put our best efforts into this event to trun it into a major success. It is also a good economical injection to the city, as we have studied, but also great projection f our name and brand."

In the eight years since Barcelona last hosted it, the Final Four has grown into one of the major must-see events on the basketball and world sports calendars. In the press conference, Mr. Bertomeu and Mr. Hereu said that Euroleague Basketball and the city of Barcelona are planning a jam-packed calendar of events on Final Four weekend that will include the Nike International Junior Tournament, the Euroleague Official Awards Ceremony and plentiful off-court activities for fans and attendees, including a new basketball congress.

Mr. Bertomeu announced that tickets for the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four will be going on sale to the general public starting next Wednesday, December 15, at 12:00 CET. All tickets will be available through the competition's official website: www.euroleague.net and at Koobin's sales platform, the official ticketing provider. Ticket prices for the 2011 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four range from 125 to 550 euros, not including courtside and floor seats included in VIP hospitality packages. All tickets grant their holders access to four games, both of Friday's semifinals, plus the third-place and title games on Sunday. Admittance to the Nike International Junior Tournament is free of charge to the general public.