The board of directors of Paris 2024 approves this Tuesday the establishment of basketball events in Pierre-Mauroy. Châteauroux must also host the shooting. Villepinte and Roland-Garros for boxing.
Basketball at the Paris Olympics, continuation of the soap opera. According to the formula used in the press release published this Tuesday by the organizers, “the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Lille (east) identified for the organization of the preliminary basketball events“. Clearly, it is therefore in the usual lair of Losc, in Villeneve-d’Ascq, that the group stage of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments should take place in 2024, on the occasion of the Paris Olympic Games. Today we learn that “the Paris 2024 Board of Directors approved the solutions identified, and gave Paris 2024 a mandate to continue the work with the players concerned before their official presentation to the IOC and the IPC for final validation».
The solutions in question do not only concern basketball, but also Châteauroux to host shooting and para shooting, but also Villepinte (93) for the preliminary phase of the boxing events, the modern Pentathlon fencing classification event as well as the sitting volleyball competitions of the Paralympic Games. “This site will be submitted for validation to the international federations concerned.“, we specify, adding that the final phases of the boxing events will be organized on the Philippe-Chatrier court at Roland-Garros. “With this Villepinte site, and the Para cycling events organized in Clichy-Sous-Bois, in addition to all the sites already appearing on the competition map, Seine-Saint-Denis will be more than ever at the heart of the Olympic Games and Paris 2024 Paralympics“, we rejoice within the organization of the Olympic Games.
Cost containment
As for basketball, first sent to the dilapidated and unsuitable Hall 6 of the Parc des Expositions at Porte de Versailles and which we talked about recently in Villepinte, “this new configuration has the advantage of offering more consistency between indoor team sports“, we assure. And to argue:The preliminary phase of Basketball (three matches per team) taking place in Lille, the preliminary phase of the Handball events can be played in Hall 6 of the Parc des Expositions at Porte Versailles, offering the possibility for handball players to play in Paris. From the quarter-finals, the Basketball tournaments will take place at the AccorArena in Bercy in the heart of Paris.“. The organizers conclude by noting that “this option also makes it possible to optimize the map of existing sites and to control the budgetary framework thanks to the exceptional gauge of the Lille site», which had also broken the attendance record for a basketball match in Europe seven years ago, in the final of EuroBasket 2015, with 27,372 spectators.
To see if all this will calm the wrath and indignation of all within the French basketball family, starting with the tricolor international Evan Fournier… “The IOC will decide on the final validation of these sites, in particular, when all the technical studies will validate the compliance of the Pierre Mauroy stadium with the specifications established by Fiba.“, Can we still read in a press release which evokes an opening ceremony on the Place de la Concorde for the Paralympic Games. “The two closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games will take place at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis.“, we add. It remains to be seen whether basketball has finally found its place of life.