Udine, two teams in A with one million inhabitants

After 16 years, Apu Old Wild West Udine won promotion to Serie A with two days to spare, beating Rimini. The last game was played in a packed Carnera stadium, and the building itself is at the centre of the project to bring it up to a capacity of 8,000 people: it could be ready in three years and should also be open to events, conferences and concerts, because there is more to life than basketball alone, is the declared wish of Alessandro Pedone, the entrepreneur (Gsa is a leader in Europe in the fire safety sector) who has built the winning path that began on the suburban courts and has now reached the top championship. The promotion celebrations also made a stop at the home of enterprises, the Pordenone-Udine Chamber of Commerce: for Chamber president Giovanni Da Pozzo, it is 'a great sports story that combines with a great example of entrepreneurship: Alessandro Pedone's adventure with Apu is a wonderful one, testifying to how much sport and economy go hand in hand. The successes of sport are a valuable springboard for the growth of the economy, knowledge and development of the entire territory'. It was precisely at the Cciaa that Alessandro Pedone spoke about himself, explaining that he considers sport 'the best tool for young people to improve physically, mentally and psychologically'. The expected increase in costs to play the A1 championship is about 40% compared to now: Apu is already run like a business, engaged on several fronts, including minibasket and youth series: about twenty teams between men's and women's, at a cost of 3.7 million a year. As for sponsors, they have never been lacking.

'Being part of the five cities in the top league of football and basketball is a boast for our municipality,' Mayor De Toni recalled. For the Udine area, it is a golden sporting moment, with basketball in Friuli seeing two Udine teams in A in a territory of one million inhabitants'. In fact, the basin also includes Cividale in A2. A binomial that can also boast Venice: in addition to the Reyer of patron Luigi Brugnaro, Basket Mestre, which after 37 years has just celebrated promotion to Serie A2, the result of the synergy of a widespread ownership of dozens of small local entrepreneurs.