ROME – After Thursday’s Italian Basketball Supercup, the game prepares to house fans in stadiums for the first time since the Coronavirus lockdown.

 On Saturday evening, the match between Unahotels Reggiana and Fortitudo Bologna will fill 25 per cent of the seats of the Unipol Arena in Casalecchio di Reno. The President of the Reggiana team, Veronica Bartoli, described the game as “an historic match…regarding a first big step towards the return to normality.” Bartoli reassured fans that the club “is working intensely to allow all our fans to attend in the utmost safety a sporting event without having to give up the grand emotions that live basketball gives us.”

 On Sunday, fans of Umana Reyer Venezia will be able to attend their game against Treviso, with a reduced capacity of 648 spectators. The first team to announce the attendance of fans in stadiums were Dolomiti Energia Trento, which notified that 500 of their supporters, selected from the 1,000 who applied for priority, would be able to go to the stadium. The general manager of the Trento team, Salvatore Trainotti, said in an interview to Il fatto quotidiano that, “In an arena for 4,000 spectators, the presence of 500 people won’t create any distancing issue.” Speaking of safety measures he would take, he added, “The temperature of all will be measured and an obligatory self-declaration of health will be necessary.”

 The first game in almost six months took place on Thursday as Olimpia Milano beat Cantù 101-71 to win the Italian Supercup. There were fears that the game might not have gone ahead after a player from Olimpia Milano tested positive for Covid-19.

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