Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, will host the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018, the International Basketball Federation confirmed on Sunday.
The Group Phase will be held across the Tenerife Sports Pavilion Santiago Martin in San Cristobal de La Laguna and the Palacio Municipal de Deportes “Quico Cabrera” in Santa Cruz. The Final Phase will then take center stage in the Tenerife Sports Pavilion Santiago Martin, which has a seating capacity of 5,100.
The Quico Cabrera venue is set for reconstruction and once completed will be a 3,600-seater facility.
The FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, the biggest international women’s basketball competition, will bring together the 16 best teams from around the world from September 22-30, 2018. All participants are known following the conclusion of the 2017 FIBA Women’s Continental Cups.
Tenerife has experience of hosting high-level basketball competitions, most recently serving as the background for the Final Four of the inaugural season of the Basketball Champions League and the FIBA Intercontinental Cup.
The announcement was made ahead of Sunday’s FIBA Intercontinental Cup fixture between 2016-17 Basketball Champions League winners Iberostar Tenerife and 2017 DIRECTV Liga de las Americas champions Guaros de Lara.
FIBA President Horacio Muratore said: “We look forward to hosting next year’s FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Tenerife, a region that has enjoyed great basketball growth, exposure and momentum lately.
We are pleased to see the tremendous support put forward by the government to further the development of basketball in the Canary Islands as well as the strong desire of local organizers to invest in the women’s game, as demonstrated by measures like the refurbishment of the Quico Cabrera facility.