New twist: There is talk of double waivers for two Roman entities in A
We are still in the realm of indiscretions, but according to Superbasket’s reports, Economy and Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti has hinted that, in basketball, the Italian Basketball Federation could introduce a double waiver to favor the entry of two new entities in Rome. One would seem to have already been identified, linked to the project passed by Cremona with the Nelson cordate; however, it remains to be clarified whether the second might concern Trieste. It is an intricate situation that is leaving more than one fan with bated breath as the regular season draws to a close and there are still verdicts to be rendered.
On the Cremonese front, the picture is growing sharper in its bitterness. Vanoli Cremona played its last home game of the season against Reyer Venezia on Sunday at PalaRadi, in what may also have been the last in its history. No official announcement about the end of the project has come, but the climate around the Lombard club suggests that the end is near. The defeat against Varese has, after all, practically extinguished playoff hopes, and Aldo Vanoli, who has built this project over two decades as sponsor and sixteen years as sole owner, seems ready to bring down the curtain on a story that has given the city important goals, from the Coppa Italia won in 2019 in Florence to the “grand slam” in A2. As journalist Daniele Duchi wrote in La Provincia di Cremona, Vanoli “is living this moment with pride for what he has done but also with sorrow for an epilogue that, I assure you, not even he would have wanted.”
If Cremona were to actually vacate the seat without a buyer of the sports title, an additional scenario would open up for the FIP to handle. In that case, in addition to the waiver for Rome linked to the Nelson cordate, an additional Serie A seat would be freed up, and already the first hypotheses are beginning to circulate as to who could benefit from it: the second relegated among Sassari, Treviso and Cantù, or the loser of the A2 playoffs that are about to kick off.
On the Roman side, the game is being played on several tables at once. The project linked to Trieste’s current ownership, led by Paul Matiasic, would bet on Ettore Messina as the first choice for the technical leadership of the new Capitoline franchise. The former Olimpia Milano coach, who resigned last November, has hinted on several occasions that he is willing to get back into the game, and the role that would be carved out for him in Rome would be twofold, technical and managerial, along the lines of what his mentor Gregg Popovich did at the San Antonio Spurs. Alternatively, the name of Luca Banchi, the current technical commissioner of the Italian national team and also followed by Reyer Venezia, is also circulating.
Giving further strategic weight to the whole affair is the NBA Europe backdrop, the new competition that is expected to kick off in the 2027-28 season with twelve clubs admitted by right and four others through a meritocratic system. FIP president Gianni Petrucci himself confirmed that the realities interested in the project in Italy are concrete: “On paper today there are two realities that are coming forward. And they are real realities, not talk.” Rome and Milan remain the two Italian markets identified as strategic by the NBA in terms of catchment area, visibility and commercial potential, and whoever manages to present the most convincing project will be in a decisive advantageous position.
