Maccabi Ashdod B.C.

Ashdod's basketball club goes into 2025–26 back in the Ligat Ha'Al, promoted after taking the Liga Leumit title in 2025 under the merged name Maccabi Ashdod/Gedot, struck in 2024 with Maccabi Gedot. The route back took three years: relegation to Liga Leumit in 2020, a further drop to Liga Artzit in 2022, and the dissolution of the men's team that November, with the reserve side, Maccabi "Tzabar" Ashdod, left to carry the senior slot until the merger restored a first team worth promoting.

The club traces back to 1961, set up by the Maccabi Ashdod Sports Association with help from former Maccabi Cairo players who had settled in Israel. It folded once before, in 1988, and was brought back by Avi Hauman in 1991, climbing from Liga Alef in 1993 through Liga Artzit in 1997 before a spell as Maccabi Bnei Ashdod, merged with Hapoel Ashdod from 1998 until the arrangement broke up in the early 2000s. Between 2016 and 2019 it played as Maccabi Ashdod/Bat Yam under a financial tie-up with the neighbouring club.

None of that reorganising touched the high point: runners-up in the Israeli Championship in 2011–12, the first season after the club reached Ligat Ha'Al at all, beaten in the final by Maccabi Tel Aviv. Cup final defeats followed in the League Cup in 2012–13 and the State Cup in 2015–16, both left as runner-up finishes rather than titles.

The Dolphins, as they've been known since the fan group DM09 put a dolphin on the badge in 2009, play home games at HaKiriya Arena. The fixture that still carries weight in the city is the Ashdod Derby against Hapoel Ashdod, even if recent seasons in different divisions have kept the two sides apart on the court.