Kieran Shannon: History and logic mean basketball finals should be played in Cork 

Not only will the men’s Cup final be an all-Cork affair but so will the women’s decider after a thrilling semi-finals weekend on Leeside.

DUE SOUTH? Energywise Ireland Neptune’s Cian Heaphy celebrates a basket against archrivals Demons in a sold-out Neptune Stadium on Friday night. Picture: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

In the dark winter of 2009-2010 when Basketball Ireland had its state funding and national teams pulled, one inspired decision provided some warmth and light for the sport that still glows to this day.

The National Cup semi-finals that season had been down to be played in the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, just as they had been every year since the Dublin venue had opened in 1993. The last of those semi-finals, a double bill featuring between Killester v Neptune, and UCC Demons v Tralee, had been played in front of a crowd of less than 300, half the gym emptying after a pulsating DCU Mercy-Glanmire women’s semi-final, yet no one thought that the 2010 semi-finals would or should be played anywhere else.

But then events happened, boy, events. Neptune and Blue Demons were drawn to play each other in that 2009-2010 men’s Superleague semi-final, the same month the Neptune Stadium was celebrating its 25th anniversary just as it was the silver jubilee of the immortal final between the clubs in which Strickland stole the ball for Neptune to steal the Cup. With Hanging from the Rafters in the bookstores, nostalgia was in the air, prompting some to float the idea of what should happen in the immediate future. How about playing the semi-finals in Neptune? Sure with that pairing and the timing, logic and serendipity was telling them where else could it be but Neptune?

The semi-final and weekend that duly ensued was so electrifying and well-run that when the clubs came out of the hat to play each other again in a semi-final in 2012, the semi-final weekend was again moved to Cork and was again so spectacular it has stayed there ever since, regardless of who has made it through to the last four. A generation knows nothing else: while the Cup finals remain in Dublin, Cup semi-final weekend means Cork and a festival of the sport in the town.

Now Basketball Ireland finds itself where it was that December of 2009. Not only will the men’s Cup final be an all-Cork affair (between Ballincollig and UCC Demons), but so will the women’s (between Brunell and Fr Matthew’s) after four semi-finals that had everyone either riveted on their seats or out of their seats and the Stadium barely had an empty seat.

Instead of moving all of Cork to Dublin, common sense as well as a lesson from recent history should tell Basketball Ireland it’d be better whatever easier to move all the finals – or at least both Superleague finals – from Dublin to Cork. There’s no one who was in the Neptune Stadium over the weekend, regardless of whether they’re from Cork or not, who begrudge returning there the weekend after next. And if you weren’t in Cork last Friday or Saturday night, well all the more reason the finals should be in Neptune so you can get to experience the atmosphere for yourself.

The word is that when the Arena is being redeveloped two years from now, the Cup finals will be moving to Neptune anyway. All the more reason to move the 2024 edition there so. The old Arena can still have the 2025 finals there, but when history and logic rhyme with pairings like this, it has to be the Stadium for 2024.