“The problems we have is the systems are on average quite degraded and are more or less the same size“.
The sports councilor of the municipality of Savona Francesco Rossello spoke yesterday afternoon together with the president of the Sports Council, the municipal councilor Aureliano Pastorelli at the meeting at the SMS Fornaci organized by the Democratic Party entitled “Sport in Savona. Structures and potential“. At the center are the sports facilities, 23 in total all granted by the Municipality in concession, of the city of Torretta, the difficulties related to maintenance, the projects financed by the Pnrr and the prospects for the future.
“At the moment there are 3 football fields active, one is missing and they all need major interventions – Rossello points out – This situation has worsened over time because the Municipality entered pre-failure and for some time did not intervene on the plants which reached worse levels of degradation. We mapped the situation and it turned out that at maximum efficiency we would have had to carry out 5 million interventions compared to a sports sector budget of around ten thousand euros“.
In addition to the well-known critical issues of the Bacigalupo stadium, work is underway on the second lot of the Zanelli swimming pool and the restyling of the former swimming pool in via Trento e Trieste with a skatepark. In addition to the construction of an Event Hall in the future in the dirt area next to the Court in Piazza del Popolo (following an agreement between the Municipality and Binario Blu).
“We would like systems to be at maximum efficiency and be able to invest in some fundamental structures of the city. Like the Bacigalupo, the Palaeventi, the doubling of the Zanelli swimming pool – the sports councilor points out – in Savona for example there is no ring for regular skating and a hockey field“.
“We have managed to start work on almost all the systems but there is still a lot to do. We want to enhance the social function of sport by finding spaces and with tenders to invest in parks as happened with the calisthenics park at Rocca di Legino, where we intervened with 30% co-financing and all the preparatory works – Rossello continues – We need to ask ourselves one thing: right now after the elections the Government will cut further resources to the Municipalities and it is a trend that has been going on for years. The strength of the municipalities is no longer what it used to be. I don’t know if for how long an administration, in the next 15-20 years, will find itself unable to afford any more interventions on all these systems. We must make virtuous policies that allow us to improve the situation rather than worsen it“.
“Sport works in Savona and the structures for the associations are fundamental but this is a situation from the past, the interventions on Bacigalupo for 65 years were null and void by the Municipality, it was given over to those who were there today and tomorrow to manage it no, perhaps the administration should pay more attention to giving the structures management but it is not the fault of councilor Rossello and perhaps not even of those who were there before – Pastorelli points out – I see structures in other cities where sport is in first place, we don’t have structures where we can organize a sports tourism event. The Palaeventi is a good opportunity for example, but now let’s think about securing and renovating the existing systems. Today, presidents struggle, even to pay their bills. In the future, Savona must become the European capital of sport, this is what we must aim for“.
An ad hoc meeting will be organized on the Bacigalupo stadium currently managed by Rugby Savona and Amatori Calcio Savona.
