Steps have been taken and decisions have been initiated for the planned Basketball Bundesliga championship tournament which will be held at the Audi Dome. On Thursday afternoon, the BBL submitted its comprehensive hygiene and safety concept to the responsible authorities for the Munich "FINAL10". The approval of the concept by the authorities is a prerequisite for the resumption of the 2019/2020 season in June with ten teams who have agreed to take part. In order to comply with the schedule, including quarantine and necessary preparation phase of the players, easyCreditBBL needs permission for the event without spectators by May 18th at the latest.
"The BBL really put a lot of effort into this well thought-out concept which was of course an absolute prerequisite in order to present basketball to fans and sports enthusiasts at home on the television again," said FCBB Managing Director Marko Pesic.
Bayern is set to play in Group A with Crailsheim, Oldenburg, Goettingen and Ulm.
With regards to the structure, the ten teams agreed on a new format for the Master Freestyle tournament: two groups of five teams each will be formed, and the seeded list will be based on a ranking based on the standings from the regular season (as of March12th). Thus, the FCBB will play in the first roune as the then first seed followed by Crailsheim, Oldenburg, Goettingen and Ulm. In Group B, Ludwigsburg, Berlin, Vechta, Bamberg and Frankfurt will compete among themselves in the first round.
After four group games each, the shortened play-off phase will follow (1 vs 4, 2 vs s3, etc.): Also in order to reduce the strain on the players during the approximately three-week tournament, a "best-of-two" mode has now been chosen for the complete knockout phase starting with the quarter-finals and including the finals - i.e. the second matchup. This means that, theoretically, ties are possible, and the addition of both scores will be the winner. The finalists for the German Championship 2020 will have played ten games.
All 36 games of the tournament would be shown live as usual by MagentaSport and FCBayern.tv.