Sabonis and other basketball managers met with Speaker of the Seimas Vydas Gedvilas on Thursday. They said the most popular sports in Lithuania generated at least LTL 250 million in revenues for Lithuania this year, and the state gave nothing back.
"I think that the sport number 1 in the country and the federation number 5 in the world needs at least EUR 2 million in state aid. The money would be used not only by the Lithuanian national teams, with as many as eight now playing, but they would be spent on development of our basketball, starting from kids, schools, even private ones, which most probably produce most of our athletes," Sabonis said on Thursday.
Sabonis and Mindaugas Balčiūnas, the federation's secretary general, presented to Gedvilas, former head coach of Lithuania's women's national basketball team, figures by the Lithuanian Sports University on basketball's financial impact on the country's economy.
"The Lithuanian basketball system generates around LTL 250 million a year for Lithuania's economy. The money comes from various areas, including wages, aid, events etc. As we know, the lowest tax rates in Lithuania are 15-20 percent, so we can claim that basketball in Lithuania pays around LTL 20-30 million in taxes only," Balčiūnas said.
The speaker said the incoming government should pay attention to these figures.
"If we believe basketball is our second religion, so they definitely cannot go about with a stretched out hand asking for money. The government has to pay attention to these things," Gedvilas said.
