Palacongressi Officially Opposes Permanent Sports Use of Pavilion C
“The Palafiere will never become a sports field. Basketball can be accommodated there, but only for scheduled, time-limited events: a one-week tournament is fine, but we cannot allow permanent modifications that are not purely exhibition-related. The municipality should not ask us to sacrifice valuable space in this way.”
Finally, an official statement from the Palacongressi regarding the (now more political than sporting) fate of pavilion “C”, the large hall that at Ballerà is supposed to host the matches of the “Carda Cartiere”.
Statements by Zontini and the Mayor’s stance
Speaking is Gianni Zontini, president of Palacongressi. A minute earlier, the mayor of Riva, seated next to him, had used different, if not opposite, tones in response to the same question:
“The pavilion “C”, as it is, can also serve for events beyond exhibitions. Basketball, and the adventure of the “Cartiere” in BL, has made us dream. We never imagined so much attention for a sporting phenomenon. We are thinking calmly: it’s not true that there are arguments within the council; we simply lack concrete elements to decide. It’s clear, however, that we cannot ignore the will of the 29 councillors who signed for basketball at Salterà.”
Malossini and Zontini exchange glances: “After all – says the president of Palacongressi – there has been no official request from the municipality for the use of the pavilion.”
If ever such a request arrives, it will be after the summit that the municipality, Palacongressi, and Lido di Riva must hold within this week with Bruno Santi, the team president.
Meeting and future developments
But the basketball issue was actually only marginal in the meeting yesterday morning that gathered around Zontini’s large table all the most prominent figures from local politics and business: Bassetti, Gamba, Nicolli, Meneghelli, Malfer, Remia, along with Palacongressi director Righi and Mario Malossini, the company’s consultant.
New exhibition dates are coming up (more on that in the economic report), while urban planning for the Batterà pavilions is still being defined.
“The Riva Municipal Master Plan – said Marco Benedetti yesterday – is under review by the provincial urban planning commission. As for the Pup variant, we will need to wait until spring 2001.”
In the meantime, the handover between Palacongressi and Lido di Riva spa will conclude. The latter – adopting the directives received from the city council – will acquire ownership of the exhibition facility, freeing Palacongressi to focus solely on management.
While Zontini asks the municipality to “move the waters on the lakefront”, in need of urban requalification, Enio Meneghelli recalls that the quality of life on the lake is high precisely because of our tourism vocation: “Tourism was thriving here when the rest of Trentino was living off pastoralism…”