Donar Groningen
| Donar Groningen | |||
| Founded | 1951 | ||
| Hall | MartiniPlaza (4,500 seats) |
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| Homepage | http://www.donar.nl/ | ||
| Trainer | |||
| league |
DBL |
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| Colours | blue White | ||
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Donar Groningen is a Dutch basketball club from Groningen . The club was six times Dutch basketball champions and four times cup winners.
history
The origin of the association goes back to 1881, when the GSSV (Groninger Studentenschermvereiniging) Donar was founded. The student association Vindicat founds this club, in which mainly gymnastics was practiced and fought . There was a tradition of naming clubs after Germanic deities. That is why the name Donar is derived from the Germanic god Thor . In 1951 a basketball department was created in this club, today's Donar Groningen .
In 1970 the team reached the highest Dutch basketball league, the Eredivisie, for the first time. Three years later, the basketball department cut itself off from the parent club and went its own way with the main sponsor Nationale-Nederlanden . That year also saw the transition from an amateur team to a professional basketball team. This path led to various participations in the Korać Cup , a European Cup for club teams and in 1982 the first win of the Dutch championship.
As soon as it reached its zenith, the bad news came from the main sponsor that the latter would stop all payments. Donar was forced to voluntarily relegate to the third division. As Ahrend Donar , they rose back to the first division in 1987 and have been playing there ever since. Due to good performances Donar let the forced relegation quickly be forgotten, they made it into the play-offs regularly, but the big hit did not materialize.
In 2004, when the club name had deviated from the traditional Donar and was now called MPC Capitals , the team won the second championship in the club's history. More good seasons followed, and after winning the cup in 2005, they won the championship again in 2010. A year later they secured the trophy again. The club is one of the constant top clubs in Dutch basketball.
From 2009 to 2014 GasTerra , a Dutch natural gas company, was the main sponsor of Groninger. Under the name GasTerra Flames , the Groningers became Dutch champions once in the period from 2009 to 2014. Furthermore, the GasTerra Flames 2011 played as the first Dutch team in the preliminary round of the so-called EuroLeague.
Since July 2014 the basketball team from Groningen has been called GSSV Donar again . In their first season under the old name, they play for the first time since the 1970s without a main sponsor in the Eredivisie. Completely surprisingly, Donar wins the SuperCup against ZZ Leiden at the beginning of the 2014/2015 season. After a mixed start to the 2015/2016 season and many departures in the middle of the season, Donar manages the sensation: On May 26, 2016, you become Dutch champion for the fifth time! In October they win the Supercup.
Hall
The club plays its home games in the 4,500-seat Martini Plaza .
successes
- 7 × Dutch champions (1982, 2004, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018)
- 5 × Dutch cup winners (2005, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017)
- SuperCup (2014, 2016)
Name story
By changing the main sponsor several times, the association had twelve different names since it was founded:
- GSSV Donar
- Nationale-Nederlanden Donar
- GBV Donar
- Ahrend Donar
- VGNN Donar
- RZG Donar
- Celeritas / Dona
- RZG Donar
- MPC Donar
- MPC Capitals
- Hanzevast Capitals
- GasTerra Flames