[22
MAY 00] COVENTRY CRUSADERS NEWS
Crusaders Stay Down But Join New Elite
Coventry
Crusaders boss Dip Donaldson has admitted that his team have a small
chance of getting into the top basketball league in the country.
But
the team, which has recently moved to the SkyDome arena will instead
take its place in a new league of six teams formed out of their
current National Basketball League Division One.
They
will join Teesside, Solent, Sutton,
Worthing and Plymouth in the new structure next season, which
starts in September.
All
the teams will play each other four times, twice at home and twice
away.
The
league, which will be called the Elite League, will play cup
competitions against the lower Division One of nine teams, which
includes Birmingham.
Promotion
and relegation based on merit will be introduced, and the most
successful teams will be able to play in European competition.
At
the moment clubs in the Dairylea Dunkers league do not compete on the
continent because the match schedule doesn't allow for it.
Crusaders'
boss Dip Donaldson said he thought some teams could drop down from the
Dairylea Dunkers to take part in the new challenge.
But
he ruled out the Crusaders moving in the opposite direction.
Donaldson
said:
"I
don't think I can get the funding. I will try and present a
financial package, but I don't think we will get there."
He
added that the new league would represent a big task for the
Crusaders. Last season they finished seventh in their division - and
bottom out of the teams taking their place in the new contest.
Donaldson
said:
"You
have to reach a certain level. We had a dreadful season and we need
to do better."
He
added that he was still looking to fill the two slots open to foreign
players, and confirmed that they would form the nucleus of next years'
team.
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