Five years later, history repeats itself. The children, parents and the board of directors of the Pedagogium Basketball Club of Gràcia consider the intentions of the new managers of the Josep Comellas pavilion more than worrying, where more than 200 kids from 17 categories have trained since 2013. They fear seeing the hours available for matches reduced. and we train and claim preferential use of 50% of the facilities on weekends, as up to now, in order to compete properly.
Twenty days before the start of the season, the club is still negotiating with the City Council to renew access and avoid eviction. Since last week the teams trained on fewer tracks. The directors of the green and black club, which has 60 years of history, warn about the possibility that the new manager will privatize the pavilion. “This would make the normal functioning of our sporting activities unsustainable and is generating serious concern among families,” insists Rosa Maria Calaf, spokesperson for the club’s board of directors, which for more than two months has been demanding that the City Council guarantee the use of the sports center at preferential times, both on weekdays and holidays, as until now.
The club, which in 2017 was already left out of the management of the pavilion, maintains that the City Council has imposed “abusive” conditions in the new tender contract, which prevented them from applying to manage it. According to Calaf, they required a fund of 150,000 euros and to have managed similar spaces in the last 3 years.
Meanwhile, the City Council has made a proposal to the club for more hours of training in other equipment in order to compensate for the reduction in hours that the new contract would imply. For Calaf, these actions are clear indications of the intention to privatize the facilities. Given this scenario, the Pedagogium is considering presenting an administrative appeal. At the moment, the name of the entity that has been selected as the winner of the tender has not been publicly confirmed, nor when its management will be formalized. The club hopes it will be as soon as possible to be able to start the season normally.
