He and his teammates have replaced basketball shoes and ball with paint brush, drill and saw, a craft role in the club's service to freshen up and renovate some apartments, changing rooms and so the team's own gym in Täljehallen in central Södertälje.

- We players have not been laid off or so. The club has done great to us and now we help as best we can. We are not carpenters, but we still learned something, says Dino Pita, who this day puts the finishing touches on the gym building with teammates Pahlmblad and Jonathan Person.

It is painted and celebrated at a time when the closest basketball they come is documentaries on TV and possibly some video games. For the association and relatively newcomer club director Johan Strömwall, himself an ice hockey elite player himself, is a tough fight to get the economy together. It has been cut in costs in a situation where there is no revenue and where the club's major source of income, the youth tournament Scania Cup (which has been moved from Easter to just now June) risks being canceled completely, a heavy loss.

- It's about millions. But we have taken powerful measures and I am proud of how we in the club have managed to act. We have saved some of it back, but it is still a very tough situation for us, says Strömwall.

At the same time, he appreciates how the players, in both the men's team Kings and the ladies in Telge Basket, set up and with their craftsmanship kept down the costs for the club. He can even see a little merit with the work.

- They take their responsibility in the difficult times it is. And it is welding together, although we do not have a full team on contract until next year, those who are here have certainly become a little tougher.

See the full report here:

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