“To encourage investments also by private individuals, it is important to redesign a new economic-financial model for sports facilities which is not limited to the construction or regeneration phase, but also focuses on the subsequent management and maintenance phase of the facility ”.
This is one of the key passages of the speech of the President and CEO of Sport and Health, Marco Mezzaroma and Diego Nepi Molineris, during the hearing held today before the “Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Safety Conditions and the State of degradation of cities and suburbs”.
The two leaders of the Society for the Development of Sport in Italy illustrated the activity that Sport and Health carries out on a daily basis throughout the Italian territory, with particular reference to those realities “dove – underlined the President Marco Mezzaroma – the lack of sports on offer in terms of facilities coexists with a greater incidence of medical pathologies and with further negative indicators such as a low schooling rate, an average income not in line with the more developed areas and a high level of crime. Investments in sports infrastructure they have the ability to multiply social benefits, becoming activators of virtuous processes of urban revitalization. The indicators – he continued – they show us how development actions in the South are able to return the highest returns in terms of cost-benefit ratio. We are therefore convinced that, as the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi, has repeatedly reiterated, a truly decisive game is being played out for our country regarding sports facilities”.
“Today many plants are abandoned and at risk of deterioration. Here because – added the CEO, Diego Nepi Molineris – we have started the national census of sports facilities which, enriched by a dialogue with the institutions, will allow us to have a more complete vision of the sports world and infrastructures. We are working towards the objective of reducing the average duration of works. It is essential, however, not only to finance new projects, but also to monitor and maintain existing plants to prevent situations of degradation and to transform them into true safeguards of legality. Sports venues must represent the tangible sign of the restart and relaunch of the territories. As in the case of Caivano where – Nepi Molineris said again – the “Illumina Caivano” project will not be limited to the infrastructural redevelopment of the former sports center, but will have the aim of giving new “light” to the entire territory. Illumina Caivano aims to become a benchmark for other degraded areas of the country that Sport and Health will be able to reconvert and bring new light”.