The Basketball Africa League (BAL) yesterday announced that five new teams and three new countries are among the 12 club teams from 12 African countries that will compete in the 2024 BAL season, which will tip off on Saturday, March 9 at SunBet Arena in Pretoria.
The fourth BAL season will feature a record 48 games in Pretoria; Cairo, Egypt; Dakar, Senegal; and Kigali, Rwanda, marking the first BAL games in South Africa and the first time the league will play games in four different countries.
The 12 teams have been divided into three conferences of four teams each.
Seven of the teams have competed in the BAL before, two of which – Petro de Luanda (Angola) and US Monastir (Tunisia) – will be competing for a record fourth season.
Five teams are making their BAL debut, including the first BAL teams from Burundi, Central African Republic and Libya.
Each conference will play a 12-game group phase during which each team will face the other three teams in its conference twice.
New this season, the home team in each market will play on every gameday, including on the weekends.
The inaugural Kalahari Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, March 9 until Sunday, March 17 at the SunBet Arena.
The Nile Conference group phase will take place from Friday, April 19 until Saturday, April 27 at Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo.
The Sahara Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, May 4 until Sunday, May 12 at the Dakar Arena in Dakar.
The top two teams from each conference and the top two third-place teams from across the three conferences will travel to BK Arena in Kigali for four seeding games followed by eight-game, single-elimination play-offs and finals from Friday, May 24 until Saturday, June 1.
In the season opener, first-time BAL participants FUS Rabat Basketball (Morocco) will face Petro de Luanda at 4pm CAT.
In the second game, home team Cape Town Tigers (South Africa) will take on first-time BAL participants Dynamo Basketball Club (Burundi) at 7pm CAT.
On the opening day of the Nile Conference, home team Al Ahly (Egypt) will begin their title defence against two-time BAL participants City Oilers (Uganda) at 5pm GMT.
The complete game schedule is available at BAL.NBA.com.
Tickets for the Kalahari Conference group phase in Pretoria and the Sahara Conference group phase in Dakar are on sale now at BAL.NBA.com, Ticketmaster.co.za (Pretoria) and Teewtickets.com (Dakar).
Single game tickets start at R75 for the Kalahari Conference group phase and 2 500 West African CFA franc (XOF) for the Sahara Conference group phase.
Fans can save up to 35% off single game ticket prices for group packages by emailing BalTickets@thebal.com, and up to 20% off single game ticket prices for all games during the Sahara Conference group phase by selecting two, four or all games.
Fans who purchase tickets will also have free access to BAL Fan Zones at the arena in each market.
Ticket sales information for the Nile Conference group phase in Cairo and the play-offs and finals in Kigali will be announced at a later date.
Champions from the national leagues in Angola, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia earned their participation in the 2024 BAL season by winning their respective national leagues.
The remaining six teams, which come from Burundi, Central African Republic, Libya, Morocco, South Africa and Uganda, secured their participation through the Road to the BAL qualifying tournaments conducted by Fiba Africa across the continent in October and November last year. | Supplied
The Star