On Thursday, Vilnius Wolves Twinsbet presented their goals and budget for the upcoming season to the media.
The organisation, which is entering its third active year, expects the capital city team to qualify for both the Betsafe-LKL championship and the King Mindaugas Cup finals, while in the BKT EuroCup, the aim is to qualify for the next stage of the tournament - the playoffs.
"We have ambitious goals. We are a club that wants to grow. Last season we didn't make it to the finals, but we were close. Nothing changes - we want to be in the final. The EuroCup is getting stronger, we have very strong and competitive teams in Group A, but we are not lowering our bar and we want to make the play-offs. Sport is interesting because it is not all about budgets. In the KMT Cup, we want to reach the Final Four. We didn't make it either last season or the season before. That's why we want to qualify first and then fight it out in the finals. We have assembled an ambitious and young team. We hope that during the season we can avoid the injuries we had last year. They are hard to avoid in sport, but we want to have a better season," said Donatas Zavackas, the club's sports director.
To reach its targets, Wolves Twinsbet plans to raise a budget of €4.96 million, with an estimated expenditure of €4.88 million.
The bulk of the budget, €3.33 million, is earmarked for team-building, including the salaries of players, coaches and staff.
The administration of the team is budgeted at over €460,000. Almost €1.1 million will be spent on the organisation of the club's events, marketing and merchandising, administration and taxes.
Andrius Žiauberis, the club's director, said he was pleased that the team's budget was becoming more and more sustainable.
"The organisation is moving forward. We are still the only commercial club that can survive without a municipal contribution. I want to welcome the fact that our club budget is becoming more sustainable. We have been growing our competencies and experience, we are gaining a stronger foothold in the market, which has enabled us to attract new partnerships. We want to be a sustainable club, less dependent on investors. Last season showed that a similar amount of money to what we had last year and what we will have now is enough to achieve our goals. We were very close to the final of the national championship, which was prevented by injuries to key players at key times," said one of the Wolves Twinsbet managers.
Wolves Twinsbet will start the new season on 22 September at home against Jonava CBet, and three days later, on 25 September, the team will start the BKT EuroCup against visiting Istanbul Bahcesehir (Turkey).
(Photo by Saulius Čirba)