A record edition for the “Guido Guidelli” youth basketball trophy. There Arezzo Basketball School closed the thirty-ninth edition of the event with a particularly positive result where record numbers were recorded in terms of attendance on the pitch and in the stands which testified to the quality of a format aimed at combining sport and tourism. The “Guidelli” tournament, in fact, managed to confirm itself as a driving force for the promotion and valorisation of the territory with approximately one thousand seven hundred people who, for three days, stayed in fourteen partner hotels and other facilities in the Province, guaranteeing a significant economic impact. The maps and leaflets distributed by Arezzo Intour Foundation they sold out in a few hours, while the Sba volunteers were available to provide any useful information to get to know the local beauties, supporting tourist flows towards the city and the valleys.
On a sporting level, however, the trophy saw a total of seven hundred and fifty male and female athletes from thirty-eight teams in the Under13 and Under14 categories taking turns on the field who, coming from all over Italy from the Sicilian Virtus Trapani to the Friulian United Cividale, were the protagonists of eighty-one divided matches between eight buildings in four municipalities: Arezzo, Civitella in Val di Chiana, Laterina Pergine Valdarno And Castiglion Fibocchi. The movements of the teams between the arenas and the hotel facilities were handled, for the first time, directly by the Arezzo Basketball School itself which activated a shuttle service with three Gran Turismo coaches and six minibuses, thus putting in place a further functional effort to the optimal running of the event.
A further piece of data refers to the general organization of the “Guidelli” trophy which, in the last eight months, has involved approximately forty volunteers who dedicated their time to take care of every detail on and off the pitch. This balance allows us to look to the future of the tournament with particular enthusiasm and motivation in view of 2025 when the fortieth edition will be played.
«The “Guidelli” trophy was a success from every point of view – he comments Mauro Castelli, president of the Sba. In the sporting field, in fact, we had reached the “sold-out” of registrations well in advance with thirty-eight teams arriving from all over the peninsula which allowed us to admire the exploits of many young promises of Italian basketball. The Arezzo Intour Foundation also announced that hotel attendance in the city of Arezzo during the days of the event increased compared to 2023 with hotel occupancy of up to 90% and we, with a certain pride, can claim to have contributed reaching these numbers, with the awareness that sports tourism can be a fundamental resource for the territory”.
