Goodbye Forum, Olimpia Milano returns to "historic home"
The game (won) with Virtus Bologna was the’last played by Olimpia Milano at the Forum. Until next March 15, 2026, the biancorossi will play their home games at the Allianz Cloud, or the’former Palalido. The reason? The Forum is to be “leased” to Milano Cortina. As a result, Coach Poeta’s team will have to move to the’former Palalido. Fewer spectators (maximum capacity of 5420 people, thus much reduced compared to that of the Forum which reaches 12,000) but also a lot of memories.
As specified in the club’s official press release, “… The Palalido was occupied by basketball for the first time on December 8, 1960 in a top match of the Italian championship between Simmenthal Milano and Ignis Varese. From then on, Olimpia played at the Palalido until the 1978/79 season when, after construction two years earlier, it began to play its key matches at the Palazzone di San Siro, while keeping the training venue at the Lido. In addition to remaining, however, a backup solution in cases of unavailability of the main facility, the Palalido hosted Olimpia in the 1985/86 season, in the period between the demolition of the San Siro Palazzone — following the snowfall that damaged the roof in January 1985 — and the construction of the Lampugnano arena.
In 1986 Olimpia won the last of its seven championships with the Palalido as its home court. In 1991 the Assago Forum became, barring exceptions or unavailability, Olimpia’s home court. In 2008, when Giorgio Armani took over Olimpia, the club – while continuing to play its home games at the Forum – used the Palalido area as its headquarters, using it for training up to and including the 2015/16 season, before its final move to the Unipol Forum. The link between the club and the arena in the Piazzale Lotto area has evidently always been very strong.
The first championship won at Palalido by Olimpia was in the 1961/62 season: it was the first of two. Then it won three consecutive ones between 1965 and 1967 in addition to the 1966 Champions Cup; the sixth was the one it won in 1972; the seventh the one in 1986, the only one without Cesare Rubini on the bench: the coach was Dan Peterson.
Olimpia Milano played in the renovated Piazza Stuparich facility two games in the 2019/20 season, after its reconstruction, against Trieste and Treviso, as well as an amarcord derby with Urania”. Now it is ready to return there for 15 top-level challenges (10 Euroleague and five championship).
