21 July 2011 is now part of Spanish basketball history. This date will justly go down in its annals thanks to the strategic alliance between the Spanish Basketball Association and Endesa, the leading Spanish energy company.
The agreement is simply historic. The sponsorship contract that will bring Endesa and the ACB together for the next four years (with the option of extending this to six, which I am sure we will achieve) is the most important sponsorship scheme ever made to date in the sphere of national and international basketball. This makes us very proud.
I always say that no agreement is ever reached unless there is an absolute belief in it from the beginning. I must recognise that this strategic alliance will initially be a challenge for the ACB, principally because of the change of name and brand image of the competition, that, for the first time in its history will be known as the Endesa LEAGUE this season. A challenge that puts us at the start of something new and untested, but nonetheless, extremely exciting.
Innovation is a key condition for growth for any ambitious, successful company. Since its founding almost 30 years ago, the ACB has always tried to be at the forefront, convinced that that is the only way to progress, to grow, to take the initiative in the rapidly changing worlds of sport and business of which it is a part. Therefore, to build for the future, the ACB is joining forces with a leading company, Endesa, that gives the Basketball Association a significant economic and structural grounding and offers a great opportunity to make a qualitative and quantitative leap thanks to an ambitious and innovative model for exploiting sponsorship rights.
This agreement provides strong support for sports clubs and associations that make up the ACB and opens up a new world of opportunities in communication, promotion, commercialisation and socially responsible and corporate institutional measures that will lead the professional league to grow and improve the spectacle that we can offer our fans.
This is all thanks to the excellent work of the ACB clubs, that have raised the level of the association to extraordinary heights, prompting Endesa to choose us as its strategic partner for its plan to reinforce and position its brand at a national and world level.
EDUARDO PORTELA, President of the ACB
Endesa League