It has become gray over the years, the huge tent structure under whose roof more than 10,000 fans celebrated the performances of Olimpia Milano, at times the best basketball team in Europe. No wonder, since 2012 no one has taken care of the city-owned arena, known in Milan by its last sponsored name, Palasharp. It is empty and has fallen into disrepair.
Last weekend, life came back to the area, which must seem like an eyesore for the residents of the chic new apartments and the tenants of the often brand-new glass and concrete castles in the surrounding area. On the day of the opening ceremony at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, the hall was occupied by activists from the left-wing Milan scene. Sport has moved back under the vaulted roof. Opponents of the Olympics invited people to the “Utopiadi”.
A few hundred people then celebrated what they understand as “sport populare” in the dark hall, whose lighting had long since been switched off. Numerous left-wing sports studios from all over Italy, but also from Belgium and Germany, have registered people for a boxing tournament. In front of the hall, a kind of rugby variant for mixed teams is presented on a small field, and a soccer field is marked out in the hall.
Colorful cloths hang from the hall ceiling on which amateur artists practice their circus tricks. Figures are also trained on a pole. In front of a small climbing wall, people are talking about the right way up or discussing whether their new climbing shoes are any good.
Palasharp
So there was sport again in the arena. It was the CIO activists who put the festival together. The abbreviation does not stand for the IOC as in the official Olympia. It stands for “C.”omitted Unsustainable Olympics“, Committee for Unsustainable Games. Now there were sports from below in the Palasharp full of glossy Olympic competitions.
They were actually intended for this place. The old tent construction was to make way for a new venue to be built for the Olympic women’s ice hockey tournament. But apart from the expensive planning costs that the city had to cover, nothing remained of the project. The women are now playing in an exhibition hall on the outskirts of the city.
Instead, you could now watch alternative sports on the weekend with an indefinable stew from the “Q-cina” beer on tap or wine from a canister. Or just take part yourself. Because that is exactly the difference to the classic spectator sport that is presented at the games. That’s what Maria, Marta or Mary from the CIO says. She doesn’t care which of these names she is quoted by. The student doesn’t want to see her real name in the newspaper. “Here the sport, there the audience, we want to overcome this separation,” she says. “Everyone can participate here.” At a yoga session, for example, or an introductory Capoeira workshop.
She can’t do anything with the Olympic world. She rejects how decisions are made over people’s heads there. She doesn’t understand how a country like Israel can take part in the competition. Most people who came to Utopiadi probably feel the same way.
Propalastina
There is a Palestine flag at the entrance to the hall and wearing a keffiyeh was also part of the protest folklore at the demos of the Olympic opponents on the opening day of the games and the day after. It is a matter of course for the scene to always consider the issue of Gaza during the protests against the games, from which only corporations benefit, which lead to the gentrification of entire districts and contribute to the further destruction of the Alpine region in times of climate crisis.
Of course, Mary doesn’t know how this will be received in urban society. But she knows the surveys that have shown that most Milanese people don’t care about the games. The long queues in front of the Games’ “Official Shop” on the square in front of the cathedral, where many locals buy a piece of the Olympics in the form of a stuffed animal, T-shirt or bottle opener, are not representative of them.
They only have cops and violence, we have the people
Mary, Activist
The demo on Saturday, which was favorably estimated at 5,000 participants, is probably not the same either. Some of the activists had done everything they could to raise awareness of their cause – by trying to block a motorway access road – with fireworks rockets into the minds of the people of Milan. “We wanted to show that we are serious,” says Mary and smiles when it comes to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni describing the demonstrators as “enemies of Italy“Know Your Enemy” could be read on the banner behind which the activists went into battle against the police.
The day after, Mary is not afraid of a police operation or an evacuation of the occupied hall. She points to the people who are in front of this Palasharp gathered to smoke and chat. “You only have cops and violence,” she says, “we have the people.”