Paris Basketball will take over the Roland-Garros stadium on Sunday October 16, 2022. A match will oppose him to AS Monaco and will bring together more than 10,000 spectators.
This high place of French tennis has already hosted many basketball matches, from the finals of the French championship to matches of the national team, in the 1930s and 40s and on clay courts. Almost 80 years later, Paris Basketball is bringing basketball back to life on the slightly modified Philippe-Chatrier court to play a match there on the 5th day of the Betclic Elite championship. On Sunday October 16, Paris Basketball will host AS Monaco there.
After the organization of the Paris European Games this weekend, preparations for the event are intensifying. 33 days before the match, more than 3,000 seats have already been sold with an occupancy rate of nearly 80% in the boxes.
“We have achieved many “firsts” in our young history, but the opportunity to play a match at Roland-Garros will perhaps be our greatest pride. We will work tirelessly to organize a match and a show that lives up to the reputation of the stadium,” said David Kahn, President of Paris Basketball.
This match is an opportunity for Paris Basketball to attract an audience of basketball licensees or playground players who have perhaps never set foot in a place as iconic as the Roland-Garros stadium. The poster will be broadcast on beIN Sportss at 3 p.m., thereby expanding the reach of the event throughout the country.
The cost of the realization did not wish to be revealed. “He is rich but it is Roland-Garros and we are very happy to pay Roland-Garros” simply confessed David Kahn. Paris Basketball Director of Basketball Operations Mathias Priez added:
“In all the events that we undertake, the goal is to create an economic model. This match can be an economic success like that of the Accor Arena and not just a success of esteem. »
The former president of ASVEL, from 2001 to 2014, who has since become that of the French Tennis Federation, Gilles Moretton, shared his joy at welcoming ” the spectacle that basketball produces in a resplendent stadium after the work on the Philippe Chatrier court in 2020. The construction site in the Roland-Garros complex will end at the end of 2023 with the Susan Lenglen court in view of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“The only issue that has concerned us about playing in this stadium is not related to the rain since the stadium has a waterproof roof. It is to know if it could be disturbing compared to the wind and the cold. That’s why we made the decision to do it at this time of year, from the start of the championship,” reveals Mathias Priez.
Photos : Gilles Moretton, David Kahn, Nathalie Nenon Zimmermann, Mathias Priez (Basketball Europe)
