The hall of the Dunkirk handball club (Starligue) will be equipped to accommodate the matches of the Gravelines basketball club (Elite), whose hall has just been ravaged by a fire, announced Tuesday AFP Patrice Vergriete, minister and president of the agglomeration.
“We will obviously equip the Dewerdt room (2,500 seats), the handball room, to accommodate basketball,” assured Mr. Vergriete, president of the urban community of Dunkirk (North), of which he is the former mayor and minister. Housing delegate. The Gravelines club will be able to play there “as long as it takes”, he added. “The urban community teams are already tackling this task so that as quickly as possible, the handball room is also compatible with basketball,” he added.
The Gravelines club, 17th and penultimate in the French basketball championship, lost its 3,000-seat hall on Monday, ravaged by a violent fire in which “everything went up in smoke”, according to club president Christian Devos .
Mr. Vergriete also specifies that he “asked the Minister of Sports” to “help obtain all the authorizations” necessary, adding that “the room obviously meets safety standards since it already hosts a very strong handball team. high level”, champion of France in 2014.
“A priori, there is no reason why it cannot be adapted to basketball,” he believes. “These are adaptations to be made,” such as installing parquet flooring and basketball equipment, adapting schedules.
A cultural and sports performance hall, which will be able to accommodate 5,500 people in a basketball configuration, is due to open its doors in Dunkirk in 2027. “We should meet the deadline. (…) Dewerdt should make it possible to hold out until then,” said Mr. Vergriete.
