Pallacanestro Virtus Roma

History

The club was formed by the merger of two Roman sides, San Saba and Gruppo Borgo Cavalleggeri, under the name Virtus Aurelia in the late 1960s, the founding date of San Saba, 1960, was kept as Virtus'.

In 1972, Virtus Aurelia merged with GS Banco di Roma, the sporting wing of the similarly named bank, forming Pallacanestro Virtus Banco di Roma. The side reached the second division in 1978, staying two years before moving up to the Serie A in 1980.

This was the start of an extended stay in the first division, and success followed soon after, with the side winning the 1983 championship. Earning a place in the 1983–84 FIBA European Champions Cup, Virtus went on to win the competition at its first try, with a Larry Wright led squad, that also had Clarence Kea, Renzo Tombolato and Fulvio Polesello. Wright was decisive in the final against Barcelona, scoring 27 points as Roma overturned a halftime 10-point deficit to win the decider. The next season, the Italians added the 1984 FIBA Intercontinental Cup after topping a group of international clubs in Brazil. Roma also won the 1985–86 FIBA Korać Cup.

The club's next title was the 1991–92 FIBA Korać Cup, by which time Banco di Roma had been replaced as a sponsor by Il Messaggero. A squad comprising Dino Rađa, Rick Mahorn, Roberto Premier and Andrea Niccolai downed Scavolini Pesaro in the two-legged final.

During the 2002-03 season, Carlton Myers led the team to a 25-9 record in Serie A as Roma reached the playoff semifinals. After adding Dejan Bodiroga and head coach Svetislav Pešić in the 2005 off-season, Virtus reached the ULEB Cup quarterfinals, the Serie A semifinals and the Italian Cup final, that it lost in overtime.

In the summer of 2011, the Italian club's Euroleague A-license was suspended after it finished in the bottom half of the Serie A. The next year it lost the license completely after having the worst record among A license clubs, it was replaced by EA7 Emporio Armani Milano.

In a strange twist, Virtus Roma then went on to have an excellent season, unexpectedly, by their own admission, reaching the Serie A finals, which would earn it the right to return to the Euroleague. However the club relinquished their rights as they did not answer some of the competition's requirements (in particular minimum arena capacity), earning a place in the second tier Eurocup instead.

In July 2015, despite having satisfied the economic conditions to participate in Serie A, the management asked to participate in the second division Serie A2 instead, the permission was granted by the Federation. The cited motives for the move was an insufficient budget to be competitive at the higher level and the desire to structure the club on a youth policy.

Arena

Virtus plays at the Palazzetto dello Sport (capacity:3,500) since the 2011-12 season. It had previously played there until 1983, moving into the PalaLottomatica (capacity:11,200), where it stayed until 2011, except between 2000 and 2003 for renovation work. Since downscaling operations due to reduced funds, Virtus has found the operating costs of the PalaLottomatica prohibitive and has avoided playing in the larger arena, even during the 2013 finals.

Honours & achievements

Total titles: 6

Domestic competitions

Italian League

Italian Cup

Italian Supercup

European competitions

FIBA European Champions Cup / Euroleague

FIBA Korać Cup

Worldwide competitions

FIBA Intercontinental Cup

Season by season record

The following table shows the records from the season 1977–78 in all competitions:

Sponsorship names

Throughout the years, due to sponsorship, the club has been known as: