A few days after the expiry of the period of gratuity for the use of the sports fields of Villa Dante – set at 30 June 2025 – the debate on the management of the structures entrusted so far to Messina Social City is rekindled. Numerous citizens, through the reports collected by the city councilor Alessandro Russo, complained of difficulty in accessing the plants: complex reservations especially on holidays, reduced opening hours and lack of fundamental spaces such as changing rooms and refreshment areas. To this are added the non -optimal conditions of the structures: the fields have cracks and cracks, while the game networks are deteriorated.
According to the councilor of the Democratic Party, the time has come to evaluate different solutions compared to the assignment to the Messina Social City, a special company that guaranteed the opening of the plants in the initial phase. “We need a management model that enhances the offer, make the plants more usable and also guarantees greater profitability for the municipal coffers,” Russian urges.
The attention of the councilor focuses in particular on the three tennis courts, that of Padel and that of soccer, considered of evident economic relevance: their management in concession, entrusted through public tender to sports clubs, federations or qualified subjects, could in fact guarantee not only a better service but also greater revenues for the Municipality.
The node, in fact, is also economic: from the 2024 management report it emerges that the municipal sports facilities cover just 4.04% of the costs, against a minimum legal threshold of 36%. A gap that according to Russo weighs on the budget: 857,457 euros the management costs, only 34,603 the revenues.
“A concession management – reads the question – would allow to fill this structural imbalance and would offer a finally adequate service to Messina sportsmen”.
Among the critical points underlined: the evening closing of the fields at 8 pm even in summer, precisely in the most use time slot, the total absence of instructors or technicians available to users and the absence of a project to enhance the systems. For this reason, the councilor asks the municipal administration to start a public tender that entrusts management to qualified realities, able to better enhance the potential of the systems and transform them into a point of reference for city sport.