New Basket Brindisi | |||
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Nickname | Stella del sud | ||
Leagues | LBA | ||
Founded | 1992 | ||
History |
New Basket Ceglie 1992–2004 New Basket Brindisi 2004–present |
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Arena | PalaPentassuglia | ||
Capacity | 3,534 | ||
Location | Brindisi, Apulia, Italy | ||
Team colors | Blue and White | ||
President | Fernando Marino | ||
Head coach | Romeo Sacchetti | ||
Championships |
1 LegaDue 2010 1 LegaDue Cup 2012 |
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Website | newbasketbrindisi.it | ||
Uniforms | |||
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New Basket Enel Brindisi, also known as Enel Brindisi for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Italian basketball based in Brindisi, Apulia. It plays in the first division LBA as of the 2016–17 season.
Founded in 2004, the well-supported club (who regularly sells out its arena - albeit one of the smallest ones in the league - and sent three thousand fans to Rome for a game) has gradually grown to reach in turn the Serie A, the title playoffs, the EuroChallenge and lastly the EuroCup.
Brindisi had in the past been represented by Libertas Brindisi, who played the 1981-82 in the first division and spent nine others in the second division around the same period (including a few with local great Elio Pentassuglia as coach). That side would fold in 1987 whilst another local side, Azzurra Brindisi, played a few seasons in the third division during the 1990s before itself disappearing in 2001. The city was left without a representative in the national divisions, in the meantime, New Basket Ceglie - based in nearby Ceglie Messapica since its 1992 foundation - had been promoted to the fourth division Serie B but was hampered by the lack of a suitable arena in the town (the local Palazzetto dello sport only seating 500). Ceglie then moved to Brindisi's PalaPentassuglia arena that same summer, however the team didn't draw the local public and was sold to Giovanni Di Bella at the end of the season, with the new owner making the move to the city permanent. Also in 2002, Massimo Ferrarese started sponsoring the club under his company's Prefabbricati Pugliesi brand, two years he would buy out Di Bella (who was planning on selling the club to a team in another city) to become the sole owner of the club and form New Basket Brindisi in the process, with Antonio Codiano as its president.
On the court, Brindisi won the Serie B2 regular season and reached the promotion playoffs final as favourites, however they lost the series against Ribera after being beaten 71-104 in the decisive game on 25 May 2005. They were admitted to the Serie B1 in all cases, finishing the 2005-06 season fifth. The next season saw a team led by Uruguayan Alejandro Muro win the regular season but lose in the playoff quarterfinals to Veroli. The promotion goal would finally be attained on 8 June 2008 as Brindisi beat Trapani to reach the championship final (that they would lose to Venezia) and earn a promotion to the LegaDue.