Jena as part of the National Basketball League: 
First-class sports on a first-class floor by HARO

Every sports-aficionado in Jena knows them: the Stars of the gentlemen’s National Basketball League. By the end of the last season, they accomplished a tour-de-force: the rise to the German royal league of top scorers.

However, there’s always two sides to a coin; in order to be allowed to compete in the first national league, the club had to fulfil the strict requirements of the German Basketball League (BBL) within a very short period of time. In only 3 months’ time, the club was bound to raise a budget of 1.2 million Euros and to establish a hall with sports flooring that was obliged to fulfil the high criteria of the BBL. Thanks to an enormous exertion, into which also HARO Sports, the leading German supplier of sports flooring was involved, the “Science City Jena” club was able to meet the deadline and criteria. HARO’s portable sports floor ROME 25 in oak was ready for use in due time.

Basketball on HARO sports floor ROME looks back on a long tradition in national and international competitions. Most of the Basketball national league games take place on this approved parquet. In terms of big international sporting events too, the hosts have been relying on the high performance floors made by Hamberger. Therefore, all Basketball matches that will take place during the Olympic Games in Beijing will be carried out on HARO’s portable sports floor ROME 25.

Top-notch game on a top-notch floor by HARO: the newcomers of the national Basketball league “Science City Jena” in a league game against Cologne 99ers.

Jena, however, isn’t Beijing; thus, the allocation of a suitable hall along with a professional sports flooring soon became the biggest challenge for this small club from Thuringia since its rise to the first national league. The clubs’ young managing director Steffen Hausdörfer and trainer Björn Harmsen however managed another tour de force: within next to no time, they won numerous sponsors for the realisation of their goal, among which, alongside with other renowned companies, also the city of Jena as the new eponym of the club was found.

The hosts decided to establish a lightweight construction as a first solution – a tent which was to give room for 3,000 enthusiastic visitors until the new Basketball Arena was finished. “HARO Sports has made its mark in terms of first-class sports floors. Its excellent quality, but also the flexible handling of the portable sports floor ROME 25 and the wide-range, professional service offered by HARO Sports have convinced us to bet on the approved positive cooperation yet again in Jena.”, says Gerhard Panzer, the managing director of Sports Facility Supply and Service Ltd. Co., East-Thuringia branch, and thus explaining the backgrounds for placing the contract with HARO Sports. According to him, also the fact that the floor was portable was a big plus for the club; in terms of efficiency of the interim hall, multifunction use, for fairs or events for example, is necessary. Within only a few hours time, the 628 square-meter / 676 square-feet large sports floor by HARO can be taken apart and installed again. The onsite installation is supervised by experts of the HARO Sports team.