THE DEVELOPMENT OF 3X3 BASKETBALL

3×3 basketball, an activity in full boom

If traditional basketball can boast more than 700,000 members in amateur and professional clubs in France, 3×3 basketball is even more popular, with about 2 million fans of this street sport. A street sport, because 3×3 basketball has been popularised in public playgrounds, where fans of this American sport gather for matches where good humour is the order of the day, but competition is real.

More than 10,000 outdoor basketball courts were built in France in the 1990s. This was the time when American basketball and its famous NBA gave rise to vocations among many amateur athletes. Some of them would later become great professional champions, such as Tony Parker, Rudy Gobert and Boris Diaw, to name but a few.

Simple to set up and fun by nature, 3×3 basketball matches are still very successful today. So much so that the FFBB – French Basketball Federation – has decided to create a real national competition: the FFBB 3×3 Superleague, some of whose games are broadcast live on YouTube to help as many people as possible discover the sport.

3×3 basketball also has its own club championships since late 2018/early 2019 and its professional championship which will be launched in October 2020.

Better still, as a sign of international success, 3×3 basketball will be an Olympic discipline for the first time at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.

3×3 basketball has a very bright future

The FFBB and the public authorities are aware of the unprecedented development of 3×3 basketball in France, so much so that it has become a real driving force for all French basketball, including for the classic 5-on-5 professional championship.

Very popular in the big cities but also in the regions, and practiced by several generations, 3×3 basketball conveys an image of modernity, youth, conviviality and dynamism. This sport is perfectly in line with the expectations of a large public, looking for a collective sport with few constraints, simple rules and where everyone can have fun.

Given this success, several thousand tournaments – between 3,000 and 5,000 – are organised each year in France. Jérôme Prigent, head of 3×3 basketball at the FFBB, explains that “the objective is to create a network of professional 3×3 players while offering a new and attractive sport for the masses without losing the festive and friendly spirit of this discipline.”

The covered outdoor basketball court, an essential element

The covered outdoor basketball court is the ideal and historic facility for 3×3 practice. It responds to a strong expectation from the public, who want quality sports facilities, allowing them to play all year round, whatever the weather conditions.

For local authorities and companies wishing to install a covered basketball court, there are many advantages:

• It fits perfectly into any environment because of its size;
• It plays the card of high environmental quality thanks to the association of wood for the framework and the frame, and a textile membrane for the roof;
• It blends harmoniously into an urban or greener environment.

Another advantage is that the initial investment for the construction of a covered outdoor basketball court is much lower than that of a conventional gymnasium, making it particularly accessible from an economic point of view.

If you would like more information on covered outdoor basketball courts, contact us and ask for a quote.