Trieste huddles with basketball: mayors from last 15 years take the court
Trieste tries to huddle around basketball and the city team. The current mayor, Roberto Dipiazza, and Roberto Cosolini, who preceded him between 2011 and 2016, have in fact signed a letter addressed to Gianni Petrucci. In their words, which represent a stance but also an appeal in full force, they explain to the FIP the situation of the Julian team, its history and the weight it represents for the community.
“We wish to express, on behalf of the city of Trieste, the deepest concern and the firmest disagreement with the hypothesis of transferring the sports title and the team of Pallacanestro Trieste to the city of Rome,” say today’s mayor Dipiazza and his predecessor Cosolini.
“Trieste,” the letter continues, “is not simply a sports venue. Trieste is the history of Italian basketball. It is sports culture, collective identity, popular passion built over decades of sacrifice, belonging and participation. It is one of the Italian basketball capitals, with one of the most numerous, competent and warmest audiences in the entire Serie A, which is second to none.”
“For this reason,” insist the mayors of Trieste, “we believe that a choice of this magnitude cannot be considered a mere corporate or financial operation, governed exclusively by the business logic and economic opportunity of ownership. A professional team is not a mere commercial asset that can be transferred from one city to another as if it were any brand. A team represents a community, a history, a tradition, a sporting and human heritage that belongs first and foremost to its fans and the territory that has supported it for generations. And this is precisely where we believe the role of the Italian Basketball Federation and its president is fundamental.”
The Federation cannot limit itself to taking on a notarial role with respect to decisions that profoundly affect the identity of Italian sport,” the letter from the first citizens of Trieste underscores. The FIP also has the moral and institutional responsibility to safeguard the roots, values and credibility of the national basketball movement. Otherwise, the risk is to convey the message that in professional sports everything can be bought, shifted and redefined exclusively according to profit, erasing with a stroke of a pen sports histories that belong to cities and people. The paradox with respect to other national sports also seems evident. In soccer, it would be inconceivable to imagine that a club such as Inter could transfer sports title and team to another city, severing the historical link with its territory. We do not understand why this should instead be considered possible and acceptable in Italian basketball.”
“We are convinced that the Federation should question itself deeply about the consequences of such decisions, because they risk setting a dangerous precedent and undermining the fiduciary relationship between fans, local communities and sports institutions. This letter represents not only the position of city institutions, but the voice of an entire community that feels wounded and deprived of a piece of its sports identity. Precisely for this reason it is signed by the mayor of Trieste and the former mayor of the city, testifying to a sentiment that overcomes political affiliations and administrative divisions, uniting the city in the defense of its sports history. Therefore, we trust that the Italian Basketball Federation will want to fully assume its role as guarantor of the values of Italian sport, carefully and responsibly evaluating every decision regarding the future of Trieste basketball,” are the words with which the appeal signed by Dipiazza and Cosolini ends.
