hundreds of supporters gathered to say “goodbye” to the basketball hall destroyed by flames

Three days after the fire which ravaged the Sportica complex, where the city’s basketball club hosted its Betclic Elite meetings, the crowd gathered on Thursday in front of the rubble.

A last “Goodbye” their “cathedral”. Several hundred supporters gathered on Thursday, December 28, in front of what remains of the Gravelines basketball club hall, ravaged by a fire on Monday.

“It’s a symbolic gathering which marks people’s attachment to this cathedral and to the club”, told AFP Christian Devos, the president of BCM, playing in the first division of the French championship, at the very moment when the meeting between the northern club and Paris Basket should have been held, canceled due to the fire . For Geoffrey Bailly, the president of the Marines, this fire is “a test” ; “It hurts, but we will be here today and tomorrow we will be there”he assured.

“We are going to be courageous and we are going to find solutions (…) We will be able to get back together together”declared on the microphone Marie France Louf, president of the supporters group Les Irréducibles. “We are going to fight on the pitch to finish the season. We started the championship badly but we are getting back up and with you and your dedication we are going to hold on, we are going to fight”replied a club player, Valentin Chery.

Still no fallback room for the club

Monday afternoon, a violent fire started from the swimming pool on the site and spread to the 3,000-seat hall, well known in France for basketball, which is now destroyed. The investigation must determine whether the offense of “destruction of the property of others by means dangerous to people” is characterized.

For the club, 17th and penultimate, 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. According to Patrice Vergriete, president of the Dunkirk urban community and former mayor of Dunkirk, the preferred solution consists of adapting Dewerdt, the Dunkirk hall, where the handball players play. The other option is the Calypso room in Calais, according to the LNB.