“The Zalgirio Arena will host the EuroLeague Final Four on May 19-21”, which would be a milestone for the country and the city of Kaunas, the press release said.
Zalgiris Kaunas director Paulius Motiejunas described the decision to hold the EuroLeague Final Four in Kaunas as the “highest level of appreciation”.
“We have been striving for years to host this prestigious event in our country, so we are even more pleased that our efforts have been appreciated. We are grateful to the Kaunas city municipality, which supported our ambition and enthusiastically agreed to contribute to the success of this tournament,” he said.
The size of the Kaunas city municipality’s contribution was not disclosed.
The club earlier asked the Lithuanian government to provide 1 million euros to support the city's bid to host the Euroleague Final Four but the Cabinet rejected the request in fall. The Ministry of Education, Science and Sport then explained “the government cannot afford allocating money for this event as the country is going through difficult times”.