Appeal for 200 athletes Work in the gym Homeless basketball “Help us play”

The lack of spaces to be allocated to basketball in city gyms is starting to take on the contours of an emergency. Because it is enough to close one for renovations that cause discontent among families and requests for help from sports clubs. The latest case comes from the Prato Basketball Project which includes the Prato Basketball School, Prato Young Basketball, Rosa Prato Basketball and the Prato Sport Academy for a total of 600 athletes. Starting Monday, the Project will have to do without the gym in Via 1 Maggio inside the Convenevole da Prato middle school. In fact, the Municipality will carry out urgent maintenance works that will last until 5 April. The closure, necessary given the conditions of the structure, will cause the PPP to lose 24 training spaces a week, forcing the presence of 200 athletes on the field to be remodelled. “We knew that these works would start sooner or later but we hoped to be almost at the end of the season and not at the height of the sporting year – comments Gianni Querci, coordinator of the Ppp Project -. The conditions of the gym were indecorous, between the lack of changing rooms, humidity and walls that were falling apart. On the other hand, we had been waiting for this intervention for years. Unfortunately, we were told by the Municipality that the funds must be spent in this period and therefore we find ourselves in the middle of the season without a gym”. To describe the situation in city basketball, Querci has decided to write a letter to all the families of the members, to the municipal and provincial administrations.

“In the last eight years, since the paths of Ppp and Dragons split, the numbers of members of city basketball have almost doubled – continues Querci -. But the spaces in the gyms have remained unchanged. Already now we train twice a week two teams at the same time using half of the Buzzi field each. Now we will have to do it every day. We are trying to move the games but with difficulty, because the Toscaninis are already full and you can only play at Buzzi. The athletes of Prato Basket Giovane instead we were forced to sign them up for the CSI. We looked for private spaces but they cost double or triple the municipal rates and so the only alternative was to reduce the weekly training activity”. From the Ppp Project there was also an appeal to the institutions for financial support in the face of higher expenses and to other companies to track down underused training spaces. “The CGFS will give us one in Galciana – concludes Querci -, while the Dragons have made themselves available to help us, but they too are already limited with space. We sent the letter to the families to explain the situation, but we also clarified that we want to maintain a positive attitude with the institutions. Now we are talking with private individuals in the hope that the maxi sports projects will go ahead. Prato, on the other hand, absolutely needs sports facilities”.

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