The Riga City Council decided that it will not fund professional sports teams in the Latvian capital in 2009.
As Riga City Council Deputy Imants Rakins from People's Party said, though it was previously stated that 1.8 million LVL will be assigned to funding Riga professional sports teams, there had to be a 1.4 million LVL budget cut, which doesn't allow the City Council to sponsor the teams. The cuts will affect ASK Riga and TTT Riga (basketball clubs), as well as the ice hockey club Riga 2000. Many teams have already let go all of their foreign team players...
Rakins stated that the rest of the money will be allocated to supporting the youth sports in Riga. What's more, over 200,000 LVL are supposed to be used for the organization of the 2009 European Women's Basketball Championships in Riga.
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