In the aftermath of the fire which destroyed the hall of the Gravelines basketball club (first division), the time has come to bounce back in order to find solutions to ensure its continuity and survival. The “priority of the moment” is to “manage the transition to be able to ensure the sustainability of all the activities that were happening at Sportica”, explained to AFP Patrice Vergriete, president of the urban community of Dunkirk and former mayor of Dunkirk. .
“40 years of life”
“There is no longer a basketball hall, everything has gone up in smoke. (…) Forty years of life in Sportica have gone up in smoke,” said the president of the Gravelines club, Christian Devos. Where France’s well-known 3,000-seat basketball hall has stood for nearly 40 years, now only a few walls and a lot of rubble remain. Monday afternoon, a violent fire started from the swimming pool on the site and spread to the basketball hall, before the intervention of more than 60 firefighters who eventually brought the flames under control.
An investigation was opened and entrusted to urban security, indicated the Dunkirk public prosecutor’s office. It must determine whether the offense of “destruction of the property of others by a means dangerous to people” is committed, the prosecution told AFP.
Fallback solutions
If the disaster caused only two minor injuries among the firefighters, due to the low attendance at the site on Christmas Day, Thursday’s reception in Paris, second in the championship, was canceled. For the 17th and penultimate club, the urgency now is to find one or more rooms in which to train before the home match scheduled for January 20 against Nanterre, whose outfit does not seem to be threatened.
Meetings are multiplying between the club, French basketball authorities and local authorities to choose a room. “We list the possibilities and as the approval of a room for professional matches is the competence of the Federation, the club will then have to contact the Federation,” Fabrice Jouhaud, general director of the League, told AFP. national basketball. “We will have to play it whatever happens, no matter where (…). There are enough approved theaters in Hauts-de-France, we know that we have a fallback solution in these theaters,” declared Romuald Coustre, general manager of the club.
According to Patrice Vergriete, the preferred solution consists of adapting Dewerdt, the venue in Dunkirk, the other city where the club is based. The other option concerns the Calypso room in Calais, according to the LNB. Usually dedicated to Dunkirk first division handball players, Dewerdt should be able to host BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque home matches “for as long as it takes”.
“No more balloons”
“The urban community teams are already tackling this task so that as quickly as possible, the handball room is also compatible with basketball,” explains Patrice Vergriete. In the longer term, a 5,500-seat performance hall in basketball configuration should see the light of day in 2027 in Dunkirk and “Dewerdt should make it possible to hold on” until then, he says. According to him, the Dunkirk room “is up to standard”, and some adaptations must be made in order to organize basketball meetings there.
Expressions of solidarity poured in, from the Racing club of Lens and Losc, flagship clubs in the region, to the captain of the French basketball team Nicolas Batum, including other Elite teams. “It’s a historic club, everyone has been affected. We’re providing them with logistical support: to put it simply, they don’t even have balls to train with anymore, we’re sending them today (Tuesday)” , says Fabrice Jouhaud.
For the players, left to rest in view of the events, the resumption will take place on January 4 not far away, at Loon-Plage, where the BCM will have infrastructure to train. Enough to start rebuilding for a club used to the highest level of French basketball, winner of the Semaine des As in 2011 then the Leaders Cup in 2013, and finalist of the French championship in 2004.