Fernando Buesa Arena
Encyclopedia
Fernando Buesa
Fernando Buesa
Fernando Buesa Blanco was a Spanish Basque politician in the Basque Christian Democracy and in the Socialist Party of Euskadi - Euskadiko Ezkerra branch of the social democratic Spanish Socialist Workers' Party...
Arena is an indoor sports arena in Vitoria-Gasteiz
Vitoria-Gasteiz
Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital city of the province of Álava and of the autonomous community of the Basque Country in northern Spain with a population of 235,661 people. It is the second largest Basque city...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. The arena's seating capacity
Seating capacity
Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...
, for basketball, is up to 9,900 people.
Works to increase the arena's seating capacity to 15,000 people began in March 2011, and will take 15 months.
Originally designed (rather belatedly) as a cattle market in the mid seventies, for a city that had already abandoned its links with agriculture and was modernizing at a great pace, it was soon turned into a sports arena, which opened in 1991.
The arena is named after Fernando Buesa
Fernando Buesa
Fernando Buesa Blanco was a Spanish Basque politician in the Basque Christian Democracy and in the Socialist Party of Euskadi - Euskadiko Ezkerra branch of the social democratic Spanish Socialist Workers' Party...
, a Spanish politician who was assassinated by ETA
ETA
ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...
.
It was formerly known as Pabellón Araba, until 2000.
It is primarily used for basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and is the home arena of Saski Baskonia
Saski Baskonia
Saski Baskonia, S.A.D., known as Caja Laboral for sponsorship reasons, is a Spanish professional basketball club from the Basque city of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain...
, aka Caja Laboral Baskonia.
The arena hosted the 1996 Saporta Cup
Saporta Cup
Saporta Cup was the name of the second-tier level European professional club basketball competition, where the National Cup winners from all over Europe played against each other. The competition was organized by FIBA Europe...
Final. in which local Saski Baskonia won the title, and also hosted the 2010
ULEB Eurocup 2009–10
Eurocup Basketball 2009-10 was the eighth edition of Europe's second-tier level transnational competition for men's professional basketball clubs. The Eurocup is the level that is one tier below the Euroleague level...
Eurocup Finals
ULEB Eurocup 2009–10 Finals
The first-ever final four in the history of Eurocup Basketball, officially called the Eurocup Finals, was held at Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. ULEB did not initially commit to a third-place game, but ultimately decided to schedule that...
.