Gargžda basketball players are knocking on the door of LKL

The moment of Gargždiški’s triumph at “7bet-NKL”.

The Gargždai basketball club “Gargždai”, which triumphed in the final of the “7bet-NKL” championship, won a historic victory. In the Palanga arena, to thunderous shouts of victory from the supporters’ stands, Klaipėda district mayor Bronius Markauskas himself hung up the gold medals for the basketball players.

The first place in the NKL gives the right to apply for the strongest men’s basketball league in Lithuania – the LKL, but this requires a much larger budget. So far, more than 100 thousand have been dealt with. EUR budget, and after entering LKL, 600,000 would be needed. Eur. Support is expected from both the Municipality and the business sector.
Need 600 thousand. Eur
According to BC “Gargždai” director Justos Braž, the licensing process is currently underway. “The Municipality’s decision on funding is important to us, because everything depends on the budget,” he told Banga openly. Until now, the support from the Municipality amounted to 56 thousand. EUR, the second amount was collected from sponsors. “However, if we want to play in the LKL and consider the fact that we don’t have an arena to play in, we have agreed with Palanga on the lease to let them in for at least a year, then the budget should reach 600,000. Eur. We are asking for 300 thousand from the Municipality. EUR, we hope to collect the other half from sponsors”, explained the director of BC Gargždai. In his opinion, it would be possible to collect so much from supporters, because LKL is a completely different league. “Two members of the club – Jonas Dumašius and Ovidijus Jakubaitis – are working intensively on issues of finding sponsors.

Players would change
If “Gargždai” were to enter the LKL, the club would not be able to cope with the players they have now. Most of them would change, only some of the players could stay. “This is a higher league, and when you come to it, you don’t want to play for the last places, keep thinking about how to avoid relegation here. If we go, it’s ambitious, and players are more expensive in this league. On average, an NKL player receives 1,300-1,500 EUR per month, while the LKL remuneration starts at 3,500 EUR”, – compared BC “Gargždai” director J. Bražas. Such figures automatically increase the required budget.
The question of a hall meeting the requirements of the LKL remains very relevant. “The fact is that we will not build the arena in a year or two. In the first year, we rented the hall from Palanga. Another way is to renovate the old police hall on Gamyklos street. Gargždais. Secure 1,200 seats, but not limited to that. After all, after 4 years, maybe 1,500 will be needed, especially since the Klaipėda region is growing”, the interviewer thought.

Like the icing on the cake
The club must submit all documents for licensing by May 10. The most relevant issue remains the Municipality’s decision on funding. “We believe that we can compete in the LKL, if we didn’t believe it, we wouldn’t be working on it. There were 500 fans from the Klaipėda region during the NKL final in Palanga, which shows that people need it. We work not only for victories, but also for popularizing basketball. When we played with “Žalgiris” for reaching the final four, there were 200 people in the police hall in Gargždai. Fantastic! This is one of the highest ratings, and the victory is like a cherry on the cake”, said BC “Gargždai” director J. Bražas.
He has no doubts that the victory of the Gargždi team was determined primarily by the work of the entire season and the good team assembled. The fact that the players felt each other and the spirit of the team mattered a lot. According to J. Braž, there was a core of both older (for example, Simas Galdikas wanted to end his career victoriously, dedication to the competition) and younger players. “The atmosphere in the dressing room was indescribable. In sports, a lot is determined by the inner state, how men understand each other. After all, sometimes you can spoil as much as you want, and if there is no internal harmony, the results are also not what you expect”, said the club director.