The return of the Leaders Cup: between successful revival, sporting disappointment and reflection on the future

This time, there was no photo of the teams in front of the Mining Museum. Or players wandering around the pretty Place Jean-Jaurès in Saint-Étienne, unlike the alleys of Disneyland Paris. So yes, the Gier valley is much less glamorous than the land of Mickey Mouse, but the basketball scene came out a winner. In Marne-la-Vallée, the marquee serving as the setting for the Leaders Cup left a mixed impression, without side stands, with questionable lighting, and a roof subject to the vagaries of the weather as in the final of the 2020 edition. locker rooms until television rendering, it was really not a room made for playing basketball. Quite the opposite of the Aréna Saint-Étienne Métropole, a beautiful modern enclosure, unfortunately a little undersized (4,200 seats, when 5,000 would have been preferable), which offered a superb setting for the competition.

Full stands all weekend, a real sign of success

Above all, by bringing the tournament to the provinces, in addition to a department labeled basketball, the National Basketball League has ensured a great popular success. We remember only too well the Friday 1 p.m. sessions at Disney played in front of empty stands, with almost more accredited people than supporters in the stands. This time, all the matches were sold out, in a friendly atmosphere. A strong argument to argue that this 2023 edition of the Leaders Cup was a real success, if not a hotel park that was a little too small in the Saint-Etienne region, with teams that were forced to move abroad until Andrézieux-Bouthéon, more than 30 minutes from Saint-Chamond. But a priori, while the name of Futuroscope has often been heard in discussions as a potential future venue for the Leaders Cup, the simple fact of having reached 100% occupancy rate all weekend should be enough to return in the Loire next year. For good reason, when the SCBVG was preferred to Nancy last fall, the SCBVG had obtained the organization of the competition for one year, plus another option, according to The Team.

At the media level, this edition was also a success. More than 40 journalists were accredited, and above all the competition was accessible to as many people as possible, with free broadcasts on The Teamand a final also proposed on beIN Sports. The Channel The Team offered three prime-time matches, with very satisfactory audiences. In the end, all that was missing was the sporting level for this couramiaud weekend to remain a resounding success. Unlike 2020, with the Homeric semi-final between JDA Dijon and AS Monaco, there will not have been this unforgettable match to magnify the tournament and engrave it in collective memories. So yes, the quarter-final between Bourg-en-Bresse and Monaco was very pleasant. Yes, the game proposed by the Burgiens enchanted the Arena Saint-Étienne Métropole for two days. But there will have been no tight encounters and above all only disappointing scenarios from the semi-finals: +17 for JL against Dijon, +25 for ASVEL against Le Mans and a one-sided final (until at +26 in the fourth quarter), almost emotionless. As such, we will long regret the absences of Tremont Waters or Le Mans interiors (Tres Tinkle, Josh Carlton, Williams Narace) who would have made it possible to confront the Villeurbannais winner with more adversity. But ASVEL didn’t steal anything and took full advantage of the circumstances and surprises to pick up a new trophy, being the only team that knew how to increase its level of play over the whole weekend.

Can we really continue to combine Leaders Cup and Coupe de France?

Finally, after two canceled editions (because of the Covid in 2021 and for financial reasons in 2022), it was good to rediscover the smell of a traditional French basketball tournament, in the “Semaine des As” format which has written its letters of nobility before moving to Disney. The third weekend of February is almost the only time in the year when all of France’s basketball meets in the same place. Thus, on Saturday, the declared or putative candidates (Philippe Ausseur and Dominique Juillot) for the presidency of the league were able to present themselves before the club presidents, while the coaches met on Sunday at a conference. But one day or another, it will be necessary to question the relevance of the Leaders Cup, much less prestigious than some of its counterparts such as the Copa del Rey, and which, above all, offers neither European qualification nor financial bonus for the winner. In an overloaded calendar (up to 95 possible matches per season for AS Monaco), the proximity of the Top 8 Coupe de France to Trélazé calls out, especially since the field will be practically similar: if Cholet qualifies, six of the eight teams from Saint-Chamond will meet on the outskirts of Anjou in less than a month. In the long term, it seems difficult to continue to make these two competitions cohabit, even if certain clubs, like the finalist bressan, in search of a crowning surprise behind the two mastodons will necessarily rise against the disappearance of one of them. them. But the Coupe de France is almost only of interest for the great weekend of reunion between amateur and professional basketball that it offers to Bercy during the finals, while the Leaders Cup is a competition that simply leads to a trophy transparent in plexiglass, without medal for the winners. The Couramiaud setting was pleasant, the Leaders Cup made a successful comeback but it deserves even better than that!

In Saint Chamond,