Almere Sailors was a Dutch

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

club based in

Almere Almere () is a Planned community, planned List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Flevoland, Netherlands across the IJmeer fro ...

. Established in 2020, the team played one season in the

Dutch Basketball League The Dutch Basketball League (DBL), formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). Since 2021, the league has been replaced by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT Le ...

(DBL), the highest level of basketball in the Netherlands. Home games are played in the

Topsportcentrum Almere The Topsportcentrum is an indoor sports arena, located in Almere, Netherlands. Designed by architectural studio ZJA, it opened on the 7th of October in 2007. Its operator is the city of Almere and its main hall has a capacity of 3,000 people. T ...

, which has a capacity of 3,000 people. A year later, the team left the league due to financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy a few months later.

History

In July 2020, the Almere Pioneers announced their plans to enter the

(DBL). Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, entry requirements for the league were eased. Since its disappearance in the 2006–07 season, Almere had not played at the highest level. To separate its activities from the amateur club Pioneers, a new organisation was established. On 3 August, the name Almere Sailors was announced for the professional team. The name was chosen as the city of Almere was created after reclaiming land from the sea. On 13 August, the Sailors announced Eric Kropf as their first head coach. On 27 August, the DBL announced the Sailors obtained a license for the 2020–21 season. On 16 September, the Sailors signed their first player in Papito Hersisia. The Sailors played their first ever DBL game on 3 October, losing 124–64 to power house Donar. The season was suspended and later resumed behind closed doors because of the ongoing pandemic. On 21 January 2021, the Sailors won their first ever DBL game against Apollo Amsterdam, 74–64 after overtime. Kropf was fired on 10 March 2021, assistant Gregory Tjin-A-Koeng was promoted to interim head coach. In the 2021–22 season, the Sailors applied to play in the

BNXT League The BNXT League is a professional basketball league in Belgium and the Netherlands. The league is the first tier in both the Dutch and Belgian system, replacing the Dutch Basketball League, DBL and Pro Basketball League, PBL. The inaugural season ...

, in which the national leagues of Belgium and the Netherlands have been merged. Tjin-a-Koeng remained as head coach. On 12 August 2021, the club however announced it decided not to join the new season due to the lack of necessary financial means. A few months later, on 13 October 2021, the Almere Sailors organisation was declared bankrupt.

Players

Last roster

The following was the Sailors roster that played in the 2020–21 Dutch Basketball League:

Top scorers by season

The following players were the leading scorers for the Sailors in each DBL season:

Season by season

Sponsorship

Head coaches

References

External links

Official website
(in Dutch) {{Dutch Basketball League Defunct basketball teams in the Netherlands Basketball teams established in 2020 Sports clubs and teams in Almere Dutch Basketball League teams Basketball teams disestablished in 2021