Avtodor Saratov
| Avtodor Saratov | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Leagues |
VTB United League Basketball Champions League |
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| Founded | 1960 | ||
| History |
Spartak Saratov 1960-1972 Avtodorozhnik Saratov 1972-1996 Avtodor Saratov 1996-present |
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| Arena | Sports Palace Kristall | ||
| Capacity | 6,100 | ||
| Location | Saratov, Russia | ||
| Team colors | Black and White |
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| President | Vladimir Rodionov | ||
| Head coach | Sergey Mokin | ||
| Championships |
2 Russian Super League 2009, 2014 |
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| Website | www.avtodor.ru | ||
| Uniforms | |||
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Avtodor Saratov (Russian: Автодор Саратов) is a Russian professional basketball club based in Saratov. It plays in the VTB United League as of the 2015-16 season.
Founded in 1960 as Spartak Saratov, the club took off when former player Vladimir Rodionov became its head coach in the 1982. The club was later by renamed new owner Rodionov into Avtodorozhnik (road engineer) - shortened to Avtodor in 1996 - in reference to a late benefactor.
Joining the Russian League at its creation in 1992, the club competed with CSKA Moscow (being the first club to defeat them in the league) for national supremacy during the rest of the decade, finishing in second place four times between 1994 and 1999. It would even win the regular season in both 1997 and 1998, but lost both finals series against CSKA 2-3, and 1-3 respectively.
The Russian outfit regularly took part in European competitions during that period, reaching the semifinals of the 1998 second-tier EuroCup and playing in the 1999 top-tier Euroleague (exiting at the first group stage). Avtodor defeated CSKA in the 2001-02 playoff quarterfinals, the only team to have prevented the Army men from reaching the top four in Russian basketball history to this day.
After threatening to do so for years because of disputes with the local administration, especially regarding the lack of a convenient arena, Rodionov moved the organisation to Saint Petersburg during the 2004 summer. He would form Dynamo Saint Petersburg, transferring some of Avtodor's best players such as Vladimir Veremeenko, and its place in the Super League. Meanwhile, a cash-strapped Avtodor voluntarily relegated itself to the second division for 2004-05, fielding an uncompetitive side made of youngsters, before moving down to the third division in 2005. Avtodor would win the second division in 2009 but did not have the financial means to return to the Super League. It did return to the Super League in 2012 but by that time the league had become the domestic second division. Winning that league in 2014, in large part thanks to the play of league MVP Courtney Fortson and promising youngster Artem Klimenko, the club received an invitation to play in the top-tier VTB United League and the European third-tier EuroChallenge for 2014-15. The club was able to fund its participation thanks to increased support from the local administration, who reduced the funding of the city's ice hockey club Kristall Saratov to compensate.
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