Basketball at the Parc des Expositions in Paris is (already) over. While, as revealed by Le Parisien on March 10, 2022, the exchanges between the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (Cojo) and the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) were increasingly tense, the parties reached an agreement. The site of hall 6 of the Parc des Expositions at Porte de Versailles, which was to host the preliminary phase of the Olympic tournament, is officially abandoned.
If at the end of 2021, Fiba was impatient and expressed its concerns on various technical points, the controversy has mounted in recent days when certain French internationals, including Evan Fournier, had expressed their anger when they discovered pictures from the site. Initially scheduled at the Accor Arena (like the final phase), the group matches were moved to Hall 6 at Porte de Versailles, after a site review in October 2021. And a game of musical chairs, with the transfer swimming races at La Défense Arena and, by extension, that of gymnastics at Bercy.
“I’m not going to play in a room where I hit my head when I shoot, so it doesn’t make sense” had launched the French pivot Rudy Gobert from the United States. I hope they will make the right decisions. I love agriculture, but it’s true that to play basketball… It’s clear that it’s a little lack of respect all the same for our sport and what our team is accomplishing these last years. »
The room with a height of 9 meters, a regulatory ceiling but very low in basketball, prevented the installation of a cube with the scores recorded. In addition, the air conditioning system could have made the room very humid with a slippery and dangerous floor. The place is usually used for various exhibitions, including the agricultural show, or examination rooms.
Basketball will therefore have to find a new room for its group stage. As a reminder, from the quarter-finals, the tournament will take place at the Accor Arena in Bercy.