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BC Budivelnyk Kyiv (in Ukrainian: Будівельник Київ) is a Ukrainian professional basketball club based in Kyiv. The club plays in the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague. In June 2018, it was forced to withdraw from the Superleague due to open debts. Two years later, the club returned its activities. The club holds a record eleven Ukrainian championships and three Ukrainian Cups, as well as a Soviet championship (1989).
Founded in the club's current form in 1962, the club was one of the leading clubs in Soviet League basketball. It was formed out of another team from Kyiv, SKIF, that was originally established in 1945. The team was established as a team of the Republican Trade Union Volunteer Sport Society Avanhard, under sponsorship of the local municipal building company Kyivmiskbud-4 (Kyiv-City-Construction-4). In Soviet times, the team played at the 7,000 seat Kyiv Sports Palace. The team won the Soviet League in 1989, and the Ukrainian League six times.
Following the team's long period of success, a period of time in which the team declined ensued, and it was relegated to the lower Ukrainian division, due to financial problems. However, in 2006, the team was rescued by a group of businessmen who invested considerable resources into it, thus allowing it to return to the top league of Ukrainian basketball. Within two years, the team once again became one of the strongest teams in Ukraine, finishing second in the Ukrainian National League.
BC Budivelnyk alternate 1962 logo.
In March 2010, the management of Budivelnyk held a joint press conference with the CEO and President of Euroleague Basketball Company, Jordi Bertomeu, announcing that they might join the EuroLeague in the next few years. Eventually, a wildcard was conceded to the team for the 2013–14 EuroLeague season.
On 21 June 2018, the FBU announced Budivelnyk was not allowed to participate in the Ukrainian Superleague due to debts with their players.[1]
In the 2020 offseason, the Budivelnyk club restarted its activities and signed up for the 2020–21 SuperLeague season.[2] Its transfer ban by the FIBA, which was enforced in 2018, was lifted.[3]
Name
The original team played under the name of SKIF, from 1945 to 1962. The current team plays under the current name since 1962. The team's name means "Builder" in Ukrainian. The team is nicknamed as, "Konstruktor" (Constructor) and "Stroitel" (Russian for "Builder").
