Pesaro, 30 April 2024 – The first meeting of the project was held in the Pesaro City Council room ‘City Club’an idea by Lega Pro with the contribution of Prokalos to promote collaboration between football clubs and municipal administrations.
“It is important to network – began the president of Lega Pro Matteo Marani – and as Serie C NOW we have the objective of making the administrative and sporting parts collaborate within the cities to allow the development of mutual needs. This is the first event of a project in which we believe a lot, an innovative idea in Italy that allows us to combine the forces of the football movement and the administration with an eye on the facilities, given that the average age of the facilities in professional football player is over 60 years old. Today we need to have the courage to work on the facilities, and I would like this invitation to start right here, from Pesaro, which is building its own sports center with the help of the Municipality, representing a virtuous example of this collaboration”.
After talking about the role of sports clubs in local realities, the representatives of Vis Pesaro and Sassuolo spoke in the 2nd Panel entitled “Public-private collaboration”. The mayor of Pesaro, Matteo Ricci, and the councilor with responsibility for sport, Mila Della Dora, have strengthened the theme of cooperation between the two realities, convinced that sport, education and culture always go hand in hand. Guerrino Amadori, marketing director of Vis Pesaro, then introduced the ‘V Park’ project, the sports center that is coming to life in Pesaro thanks to the dialogue between the administration and the club: “It is a dream come true: thanks to this center we will the leap in quality, we will no longer see the kids from Pesaro go to other cities to fulfill themselves, they will be able to grow in our youth sector, in our city – he stated -. The structure will give value to all of Pesaro, and will remain the city’s heritage thanks to President Mauro Bosco. Thanks to president Matteo Marani for choosing us as an example, and may it be a good omen for those who want to follow our path”. The value of the systems was also underlined by Roberto Pella, deputy vice-president of Anci, who is ready to collaborate with the Municipalities to create other models of this type in Italy.
An important entrepreneurial vision, also underlined by the marketing manager of ‘V Park’, Riccardo Del Bianco: “There will be a public area and a professional area. In the first we will see a 5-a-side football field, padel courts, bistro, play area; in the second two 11-a-side football pitches, gym, medical area, lounge area, eSports area, conference rooms, offices, changing rooms and stands. Thanks to this center, a link will be created between marketing and the territory, generating immense value for the city.”
The Sassuolo case was instead discussed by Raffaella Curioni, councilor for sport at the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and Alessandra Borghi, councilor for culture at the Municipality of Sassuolo, representatives of two administrations who found themselves collaborating to give life to the Mapei Stadium and Mapei project Football Center. The organizational director of US Sassuolo Calcio, Andrea Fabris, found in the Vis Pesaro model an imprint of what has been done in the Sassuolo sports center: “I am happy to see that there are clubs that have this vision and passion, I believe that starting from infrastructure is the main building block for obtaining results. This C NOW Series project is the symbol of how the topic of plant engineering is fundamental today.”
Closing the proceedings, mediated and coordinated by Michele Pianetta, founding partner of Prokalos, was the panel dedicated to sport as ambassador of a city. The testimonies of Marco Caroli, Co-Founder CEO Smart Sport, Luigi Masnata, coordinator of Genoa 2024 events and Domenico Carretta, sports councilor of the Municipality of Turin, have given further prestige to the ‘City Club’ project, a journey to discover the potential of doing network between the parties to give new sporting and cultural life to the territory.
