Toulouse. The TOAC Basque pelota fronton is living its last hours
In a few days, it will be shaved. The Basque pelota fronton of the Toulouse Olympique Aérospatiale Club will disappear. Definitively. The development work for the future Sept Deniers metro station in Toulouse has already reduced the TOAC sports complex by part of its surface area. Stands and a football field and others for rugby were destroyed. They will reconstitute an insured the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) of Airbus, owner of the sports club. The pediment, which was built in 1967, 13 years after the creation of the TOAC, will not be so lucky. “In terms of members, the Airbus CSE told us that our discipline did not weigh much (32 licensees and around fifty leisure players). We nevertheless submitted a few proposals but we were told that the the reconstruction costs would be too high…”, says Marc Cambet, the president of the Basque pelota of Toac. Beyond the multiple constraints implied by this destruction, he confides that “it is part of the history of Basque pelota in Toulouse that will disappear”.
“Our sport lost visibility”
For Basque pelota Grand chistera players (with the wicker basket), the game gets complicated. The TOAC pediment is the only homologated one. They will no longer have a regulatory playground in Toulouse. Marc Cambet has launched a request to the town hall of Toulouse to enlarge the pediment of Argoulets, which will allow it to be approved. If Mathieu Loubière, member of the Toac section grand chistera, admits that he was not familiar with the pediment of the club, “except for competitions”, he regrets the destruction of this wall which “will reduce a little more an already limited practice “. “It’s a large and visible pediment. When it collapses, our sport will lose visibility,” he adds.
The Toulouse pilotazales (Basque pelota enthusiasts) hope to replace this monument of their sport. The president of the Basque pelota Toac confides: “It seems that the town hall intends to create a playground and sports area near Sesquières. We would like a pediment to be built there.”