The Second Edition Of The Garda Ball Elite Returns September 9-10

IN SEPTEMBER THE SECOND EDITION OF THE GARDA BALL ELITE IN LONATO: VENEZIA, VERONA, CANTU' AND TRENTO WILL BE THERE. THE IDEATOR GIORGIO ZAMBELLIS: "THE GREAT STADIUM AS A TOOL FOR PROMOTION OF THE TERRITORY IS OUR VISION. TO CREATE A GENERATOR OF VALUE STARTING FROM A COLLECTIVE EFFORT IS THE AMBITION. BRUSSELS IS AN IMPORTANT PASSAGE. RIAVERE BRESCIA IN THE TOURNAMENT IS OUR WILL"

The Garda Ball Elite (@gardaballelite) will take place in Lonato on September 9-10 and 12 with free admission upon request at info@gardaballelite.it. For the second edition, organized and entirely managed by Omnia Sports, in collaboration with Aquile Lonato and the sponsorship of the Municipality of Lonato del Garda, Municipality of Castiglione delle Stiviere and Municipality of Desenzano del Garda and Garda Unico, the tournament will host this year four other protagonists of the Serie A: Reyer Venezia, finalist scudetto, Pall. Cantù, Aquila Basket Trento and the newly promoted Scaligera Verona. The ideator (along with Marco Rovida and Andrea Toninelli) and also founder of Omnia Sports (omniasports.eu) Giorgio Zambellis (@gergezambellis), with a past as a player in Greece, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Spain, has told us how the project was born and the ambitions that drive it.

Garda Ball Elite is born from a very simple but at the same time ambitious idea: to bring great basketball to Lake Garda and turn it into a tool for promoting the territory. The vision goes beyond the single event. We want to progressively build a real territorial platform, made up of companies and realities that decide to partner with Garda Ball Elite because they believe in the value of sport as a tool for promotion and aggregation. When I imagined Garda Ball Elite, I thought of something that could grow over time and become recognizable well beyond the borders of Lonato. I would like it to be said "In September we go to Garda" in a few years.
We would have liked to have Brescia, especially for the territorial connection and we will certainly have it soon. We would like to be able to present it to the local audience, even simply to testify to our closeness and wish the Leonessa all the best for its rebirth and for the new adventure in the championship.

The enthusiasts, families, young people, sports clubs and all those realities that can see in sports a tool for aggregation and promotion are our target, as well as institutions and the business world. In a very short time, we have gone from the idea of a tournament to the concrete possibility of bringing to Lonato teams from Serie A of this level. And this is not at all a given, especially considering the time of year in which it is held. Given the rapid growth and the reach of this event, I and my precious collaborators Marco Rovida and Andrea Toninelli expect the local institutions and the business system to recognize the entity that is being built and support it with a participation consistent with its potential.

Brussels, in May, was a very important stop because it allowed us to present Garda Ball Elite in a European institutional context and to make it clear that behind this project there is not only basketball but a precise vision of a territorial platform. And the numbers from the first edition, in response to the large audience, having exhausted everything and with requests that could not be evaded (which leads us to think that in the future a larger space may be necessary even if today the Lonato palace allows us to create an event very close to the public, with an atmosphere that is difficult to achieve in very large venues), and the views on social media (one game had 6000 views) told us that the project could become more structured. To convince important clubs it is not enough to say that a tournament is being organized on Lake Garda. It is necessary to offer sporting, organizational and logistical conditions that meet their needs. The fact that clubs of this level have included Garda Ball Elite in their preseason programs is for us the concrete result of the work done. We do not ask clubs to simply come to play a game. We try to build an appointment that has value for them as well, within the preparation of the season.

The first edition was a bet. Today there is awareness and greater attention to communication and the promotion of the territory. The placement in September is absolutely intentional. It is the moment when teams are building the new season, coaches are working on new groups and the matches are starting to have a growing technical value.

But the choice of the period also has a territorial logic. September is a time when Garda does not necessarily have to stop being attractive. On the contrary, it can become the beginning of a different season, in which sports, events and tourism can coexist and contribute to bringing people to the territory even beyond the summer peak.
In the future, we would therefore like to build a path that doesn't just live within the four days of the tournament.
The idea is to create initiatives, content, meetings, and collaborations with companies and sports entities in the area throughout the year, until the September appointment.

Our goal is very simple: to make sure that Garda Ball Elite is not just a tournament played on Garda, but an event that belongs to Garda.

Mike Tobey (213-C-1994, college: Virginia)