Buļs: Rīgas Zeļļi currently "patching holes" in club finances

Edgars Buļs, president of Latvian basketball club Rīgas Zeļļi, spoke in an interview with "D Sektors" about summer talks with Latvia national team captain Rihards Lomažs, as well as the club's finances and long-term goals. This season Zeļļi play in the ULEB EuroCup, the second-tier European club basketball competition, and have won three of their first five games.

Talks with Lomažs

Lomažs left Klaipėda's Neptūnas in the summer and was looking for a new team. It was previously reported that he also spoke with Rīgas Zeļļi, but no agreement was reached. The player went to Slovenia and joined Cedevita Olimpija of Ljubljana.

Buļs said the club first inquired through Lomažs's previous agent, Artūrs Kalnītis. According to Buļs, a sum of one million was named, which was beyond the club's means. When it became known that the player had changed agents, the president contacted him directly and they met for lunch. Buļs described his own approach as serious and the player's as moderately serious. Lomažs already mentioned interest from Ljubljana at the time, and Buļs suggested Zeļļi would have been a fallback option. The two also met after a game in Riga.

Funding and goals

Buļs stressed that to stay at this level in the long run, the team needs larger and more stable funding. He is unsure whether this can be achieved with local capital alone and suggested that outside support may be needed, or that he may have to approach several of Latvia's wealthiest people. Some wealthy people are among the club's supporters, but many have also declined; he did not name anyone.

As an example, Buļs cited Kaunas's Žalgiris, where Paulius Motiejūnas has brought in several large companies and the club's budget grows every year. In Buļs's view, that is what he must achieve at Zeļļi, as the club is currently "patching holes". He added that the club is stable and still in its early stages.