In Gravelines in the North, the shock persists after the fire at its Palais des Sports, the Sportica, where the town’s basketball club, BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque, played. No casualties have been reported, but a landscape of devastation remains visible, with a 3,000-seat hall completely destroyed.
Some say that this room was the equivalent of the Bollaert stadium in Lens. All the northern fervor for championship or European Cup matches was felt within it. The memories experienced in this room come to the surface for the supporters present on the Sportica square, discovering what remains of their room, which was truly part of their lives. One of them testifies: “These are 40 years of memories that have just gone. It’s a catastrophe for us”.
“For us, there was a soul,” adds another supporter. “There was a special atmosphere, always here, we had the spirit of the North. A match here was never over.” The Gravelines club is known by basketball fans as an audience with a certain fervor, a fanfare, numerous supporters at all the matches. This was explained by the particular architecture of the Sportica hall, as Romuald Coustre, general manager of the club, explains: “The public was very close to the pitch. (It was) an architecture where we had a feeling of cauldron with an audience which was omnipresent around the field”.
Sportica represented much more than a basketball hall for the people of Gravelin, it was, in the words of a distraught resident, “the lung of the city”. The entire municipality and its economy are affected by this disaster.
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2023-12-26 12:53:47
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