Ramat Gan's two flagship basketball clubs are becoming one operation. ONE reports that the city's men's and women's top-division teams have been brought under single ownership and management, ending decades of the sides running as separate entities under the same municipal roof.
Businessman Avi Gabai, who took over as owner and chairman of the men's team, Maccabi Ironi Ramat Gan, last season, will lead the combined club. Ora Glazer, who has been the women's team's chief executive since 2010 after 13 years as its chairwoman, stays on to run its day-to-day affairs.
Both sides play in Ligat Ha'al, Israel's top basketball division. The women's team traces its roots back to 1957, according to ONE, and has won the State Cup six times and the national championship on two occasions.
"We created one club with two arms operating under uniform professional standards," Gabai said, according to ONE, casting the merger as proof that competing for titles in Ramat Gan basketball "knows no gender distinction."
Glazer framed the union in social as much as sporting terms, describing it as a community initiative that positions the club as a leader in advancing women's basketball and gender equality in Israeli sport.
Gabai, who replaced longtime owner Chen Schneiderman at the men's team, has also pledged to build a new arena in partnership with the municipality - a facility he wants sized for European competition.
Mayor Carmel Shama Hacohen welcomed the move, calling it, per ONE, "a necessary step" that brings "two excellent teams" together under one professional management structure. City hall has pushed in recent years for Ramat Gan's sports clubs to consolidate rather than split resources and sponsorship across parallel outfits.
The basketball merger follows the broader pattern the mayor's office has encouraged across local sport in Ramat Gan, aiming for one strong flagship side per discipline instead of several competing for the same limited pool of players, facilities and funding.
