by Michele Bufalino
PISA
For the third time in a row, the Arena Garibaldi will have to remain at a reduced capacity, awaiting the last meeting this afternoon by the provincial supervisory commission which will have to approve, from a safety point of view, what has been done in the last few days by of the Municipality of Pisa for extraordinary maintenance of the system or make even more drastic decisions. Meanwhile, those 7,928 total spectators to which the capacity of the stadium was reduced, with the steps still at 945, remain to this day the lowest point of the Pisan stadium which, in 30 years, has gone from the 35,000 seats available in the era Anconetani, up to today’s minimum wage.
Starting from Pisa-Lecco last month, when the rubble collapsed in the terrace sector, through Pisa-Como and, tomorrow, Pisa-Brescia, the Nerazzurri club has lost around 50 thousand euros in lost revenue per match. Important numbers including lost revenue and more, considering that, annually, the general share of season ticket holders and overall ticket sales is close to 2 million euros for the Pisa Sporting Club.
The stalemate situation and the excessively long timescales with which the commissions are deciding what to do before each match force the Nerazzurri club to put the tickets on sale only at the last moment, with problems that have repercussions on the fans, as well as being a damage for the economic part of the Pisan association. To date, however, the presale for the lower and upper stands has not yet started and will only be able to begin after the final green light from the commission, while with a clever move Pisa has at least managed to move part of its season ticket holders into the stands, making selling a handful of tickets for the accessible part of the steps, offering their supporters a significant discount. However, it is not a happy moment for the fans. In fact, spectators are constantly decreasing and this is due to many factors. The results were slow in arriving and even the Curva Nord made itself heard with its constructive criticism in its statement on the occasion of Pisa-Como. After the initial enthusiasm recorded during the home match against Parma, which saw the presence of 8030 fans but ended in a 1-2 defeat, the number of spectators gradually decreased.
In the mid-September match against Bari (1-1), there were 7663 fans, while against Cosenza the number dropped further to 7099. Against Cittadella only 6234 fans were present and the situation did not improve with Pisa-Lecco ( 6256), nor with Pisa-Como (6324). There have never been so few spectators during Corrado’s presidency, with a further risk. If the capacity ever drops below 5,500 either we will have to change the stadium or we will have to play behind closed doors, but only for a limited number of events with the risk of being expelled from the championship. An apocalyptic scenario fortunately still very far from reality.
