"All Around Derthona" opens: Derthona Basket's second store at the Cittadella dello Sport.
Confcommercio Tortona: "Sport is local commerce, it's community, it's the local economy. It's wealth, not just social but also economic, as these openings demonstrate. This is also why we've brought ASC (Confederated Sports Activities), the CONI-recognized organization representing sports businesses and sports associations within Confcommercio, to the province as well."
With the presentation to the fans of Bertram Derthona Tortona and Autosped G BCC Derthona, the "All Around Derthona" Clubhouse was inaugurated on Thursday, September 17th at the Cittadella dello Sport. This venue, open to the public, features a bar and a space dedicated to official merchandise, making it Derthona Basket's second store in the municipality of Tortona (the other is located in the city center). It will be open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and, during events at the Nova Arena, will operate during the event hours. The first test comes immediately: the LBA Super Cup on Saturday, September 19th and Sunday, September 20th, featuring Bertram, Umana Reyer Venezia, Armani Olimpia Milano, and Virtus Costa Bologna.
Confcommercio Tortona welcomes this opening as a signal that goes beyond sports. At a time when local retail is experiencing a structural contraction and profound transition—competition from platforms, changing consumer habits, and a redefinition of the very role of physical locations—a sports club that chooses to open a second store, establishing a presence in the local area with a brand, offerings, and services, demonstrates that a store still has a future when it can be more than a point of transaction: a place of identity, belonging, and connection.
"All Around Derthona isn't just a bar or a T-shirt shop ," says Francesco Alfieri , director of Confcommercio Tortona, " it's a community showcase. Sports generates exactly what local businesses need most today: people who identify with a symbol, who return, who stay, who experience a place. Every opening like this is a new venture, a new business, a new flow. And it's concrete proof that sports is a real economy."
It is precisely this belief that led Confcommercio to establish ASC – Attività Sportive Confederate (Confederated Sports Activities), the confederation's sports promotion body, at the national level, and to establish its provincial branch in Alessandria in recent weeks, with an operational headquarters in the capital. Amateur sports associations and clubs are, in all respects, service sector businesses: they manage facilities, employ staff, manage suppliers, organize events, and must contend with a sports reform that has made tax, contractual, and administrative requirements more complex. Confcommercio intends to be for them what it has always been for retailers, public establishments, and services: representation, assistance, and protection.
The case of Tortona is exemplary in this regard. The presence of a top club like Derthona Basket, with its men's first team in Serie A, Autosped G BCC Derthona in the women's Serie A1, and the Baskin project—which unites athletes with and without disabilities and represents the social dimension of sport—produces direct and measurable economic benefits for the area: attendance in the city on match days, accommodations, catering, services, induced income for local businesses, national and international visibility for Tortona, and, as we've seen, even the opening of physical stores. All of this is made possible by a facility like the Cittadella dello Sport, unique in its size, design, and integration of facilities and services: a major attraction, capable of capturing flows that extend well beyond provincial borders and transforming events (like this weekend's Supercoppa) into economic opportunities for the entire city.
“Local commerce and high-level sport support each other ,” concludes Confcommercio.
