MUNICH (Germany) - Fans across Europe have shown for years how much they love national team basketball, and the final window of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers proved that once again.
With 13 tickets for this summer's big event still up for grabs, the arenas across the continent were full with anxious supporters wanting to see their local heroes make them proud.
Half of the 32 games in the final window drew crowds upwards of 4,500 spectators and a similar number of games featured at least 85 percent capacity, headlined by a massive crowd in the Latvian capital Riga.
Arena Riga, the venue for the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Final on September 14, saw the biggest crowd of the window, with 11,135 fans packing the stands to watch their team complete the sweep of 2022 EuroBasket champions Spain with a 83-66 victory.
The Latvians really came out in droves to see the team during these Qualifiers, drawing 10,890 fans to the Arena Riga in the 64-52 home victory over Slovakia in the first window - the country's first game since taking fifth at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. Then 8,827 fans showed up at Arena Riga in the second window for a nail-biting 75-72 win over Belgium.
While Latvia didn't need to worry about qualifying for EuroBasket, Georgia were facing a do-or-die home game in the final window against Denmark and 9,000 fans came to the Tbilisi Arena in the country's capital to carry the team to a thrilling 62-60 victory and a spot in this summer's big event.
The two biggest names in Group B - Türkiye and Italy - faced off in Istanbul and the game at the Basketball Development Centre drew 8,655 fans looking to get a glimpse of the nation's superstars and send the team off to the EuroBasket with a reminder that they have massive support back home.
Italy, however, spoiled the party with an 80-67 win.
Sweden were also fighting for their qualification and had a big showdown to close the campaign at home against Montenegro. A crowd of 7,985 at Stockholm's Hovet pushed the Swedes to an 86-83 overtime victory and the northern Europeans went through.
Basketball faithfuls in Serbia and Italy also came out in good numbers, even with both countries already qualified for the summer's major event.
Serbia received 7,500 fans at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall against Georgia as they completed an undefeated Qualifiers campaign, while 7,000 spectators showed up at the PalaCalafiore in Reggio Calabria to watch Italy's last game against Hungary.
Estonia drew 6,774 fans in Tallinn for their qualification-clinching game against North Macedonia, and a crowd of 6,769 in Orleans helped France beat Bosnia and Herzegovina in the very final game of the Qualifiers, with Elie Okobo's game-winner making it a memorable one.
Two of the other EuroBasket 2025 co-hosting nations also saw nice crowds come out: a total of 6,146 fans watched Finland's game against Serbia in Espoo while 5,683 spectators flocked to Katowice to see Poland face Lithuania.
FIBA