Not even twenty-four hours have passed since the last action of Game 5 of the Play Off Finals: Riccardo Sbertoli’s second intention touch on 24-19 of the third set officially delivered the Scudetto to Itas Trentino and wrote the word “End” on one of the most incredible and exciting seasons in the history of the volleyball championship.
The atmosphere of great expectation, the situation of perfect balance and the desire of the two Finalists not to give up even one exchange in the final act of the season made Race 5 a literally unmissable event, followed by more than 310,000 spectators on the Rai Sport channel, at which must be added to all the subscribers to Volleyball World TV (platform with subscribers all over the world), the numerous TV partners of the Serie A Volleyball League that broadcast the final abroad. Without forgetting, of course, the 4000 of the BLM Group Arena.
The comment by Massimo Righi, President of the Serie A Volleyball League.
“It was truly a season to remember, formidable in terms of balance and values on the pitch. I congratulate Itas Trentino for the well-deserved victory of its fifth Scudetto, and Cucine Lube Civitanova for having sold their skin dearer than ever before “unstitching” the tricolor from their uniform. The prestige, notoriety and visibility of SuperLega Credem Banca are there for all to see.
All five matches of the Finals were “sold out”, and the numbers in terms of television audiences were enormously positive: more than three hundred thousand people followed the last act on Rai Sport, and, also considering the other matches of the series Finals, we arrive at almost one million three hundred thousand. Even abroad, our championship continues to attract more and more attention, and the Volleyball World streaming platform is helping us to implement our catchment area and our visibility in other countries.
We will continue to collaborate with Volleyball World, the newco of FIVB and CVC Capital Partners, and we have several news that we will communicate in the coming weeks, and with the international federations, FIVB and CEV, we are already working for next season. Since 2023/24 is a pre-Olympic year, planning will be rather complicated to manage given the concentration of events, and will in fact probably be shorter and more compressed. It will take a lot of effort from everyone, also because one of our goals is in fact to be able to play the Finals in the best of seven games.
Our “battles” don’t stop at the calendars, the show and the improvement of our product, but we are continuing to commit ourselves at a political level to give aid and support to our Clubs: we are continuously in contact with the Government for measures on Credit tax and for the Reform of Sport, committing ourselves to the economic sustainability of our clubs’ budgets.
It was truly a memorable season: perhaps the icing on the cake was missing, the participation in the CEV Champions League Finals, but we are nonetheless pleased with the fact that they will be played in Italy, with our public who in any case replied “present” and will be able to way to enjoy a great event. The absence of a SuperLega Credem Banca club in Turin does not cancel the other successes achieved by our teams, with Valsa Group Modena winning the CEV Cup with an incredible comeback, and Sir Safety Susa Perugia which in Brazil the first international trophy was taken, among other things in an all-Italian derby with Trento”.
