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The Basketball Africa League (BAL) has announced that its 2024 season will be played in four different countries across the continent for the first time.
Confirmed:
- Season will tip off in South Africa in March 2024, marking the first time the BAL has played in the country
- Next year’s campaign will also be played in Egypt, Senegal and Rwanda, featuring 12 teams from 12 countries
- Teams to play a record 48 games over four months and be divided into three conferences of four teams each
- Each conference will play a 12-game group phase during which each team will face the other three teams in its conference twice
- The inaugural Kalahari Conference group phase will take place in March, followed by the Nile Conference group phase in April and the Sahara Conference group phase in May
- The top two teams from each conference and the top two third-place teams from across the three conferences will travel to Rwanda for four seeding games followed by an eight-game single-elimination playoffs and finals from May to June
- National league champions from 12 African countries will qualify for the BAL, including through the Road to the BAL qualifying tournaments conducted by Fiba Africa from October to November 2023
- The BAL also names Afreximbank as an official partner of the 2024 season
- Rwanda Development Board, Nike, Jordan Brand and Wilson all return as BAL foundational partners
Context:
Next year will be the fourth season of the BAL, which is a collaboration between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (Fiba). During the 2023 campaign, the BAL welcomed more than 70,000 fans, guests, league and team personnel, and other stakeholders.
Comment:
“We are thrilled to expand our footprint in the BAL’s fourth season and allow more fans to experience the excitement of this historic league, including the first BAL games in South Africa where there is already strong affinity for the game,” said Amadou Gallo Fall, BAL president.
“We look forward to building on the momentum of our first three seasons and to continuing to deliver a world-class basketball and entertainment product that represents Africa proudly on the global stage.”
Coming next:
The BAL will announce the host cities, venues, dates and information about how to purchase tickets for the 2024 season in the coming weeks.
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