RIGA — The Baltic’s leading basketball competition, the Baltic Basketball League (BBL) will begin the 2009 season with a two-day tournament on the weekend of Sept. 25 in Kaunas, Lithuania. Currently, seven teams have been approved for the 2009 season; three from Lithuania (Lietuvos Rytas, Žalgiris and Šauliai) and two each from Latvia (BC Ventspils and VEF Riga) and Estonia (BC Kalev/Cramo and Tartu Rock).

Executive Director of the BBL, Romas Brazauskas hopes that further teams may be added to the competition on Aug. 31, following a meeting of the BBL board in which the financial viability of having more than seven teams will be discussed. So far the selection of teams has been based on their final placings in their respective national competitions.

The first weekend of the tournament will consist of a four team competition in Kaunas, made up of the three respective national league winners (Lietuvos Rytas, BC Ventspils and Kalev/Cramo) and Žalgiris, who were the best placed team in last year’s BBL, outside of those already involved in the tournament. The two day tournament will see Rytas take on Kalev/Cramo in the first game, followed by Ventspils who will play Zalgiris. The two losing teams will then meet in the first game on Saturday, followed by the two winning teams from the previous day who will play for the BBL Cup.

The Challenge Cup, a second-tier competition, will also take place but the naming of the teams to participate in this competition has been delayed until a final decision is reached regarding the number of teams to play in the BBL. The official draw will be released following the Aug. 31 meeting.