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Nelson Mandela Forum, formerly Palazzetto dello sport di Firenze and Palasport, is an indoor sports arena that is located in
Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
. Inaugurated in 1985, the arena was renamed to Nelson Mandela Forum in 2004. The seating capacity of the arena is 7,500 people for basketball games, and the maximum capacity for rock concerts, with general admission tickets, is 8,262 people. It was the home arena of the Italian basketball club Pool Firenze Basket, before the club's relegation to the minor leagues in 2009. It is the home venue of women's volleyball club
Il Bisonte Firenze Azzurra Volley Firenze is an Italian women's volleyball club based in Florence and currently playing in the Italian Women's Volleyball League, Serie A1. Previous names Due to sponsorship, the club have competed under the following names: * Volley ...
since 2014.


Property

The structure is property of the city of Florence and is managed, since 2003, by the Associazione Palasport – Nelson Mandela Forum under a 12-year management agreement. The Nelson Mandela Forum has a formal agreement with the Nelson Mandela Foundation that allows the use of the name of the South African former president. The structure's compound is with of spaces where there are a main arena, a boxing training center, two areas used for gym (the latter being for many years home of the fencing center of Florence), one
free climbing Free climbing is a form of rock climbing in which the climber may use climbing equipment such as ropes and other means of climbing protection, but only to protect against injury during falls and not to assist vertical or horizontal progress. Th ...
facility, and open spaces occupied by three permanent exhibitions on human rights.


History

The arena hosted the 1990 basketball FIBA European Cup Winner's Cup Final, in which local Italian club
Knorr Bologna Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, known for sponsorship reasons as Virtus Segafredo Bologna, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1929, which makes it the oldest club in Italy and one ...
won the title,4 RECOPAS DE EUROPA – (2 SUBCAMPEÓN) (EUROPEAN EUROCUP – SAPORTA CUP)
. Galeon.com.

Linguasport.com.
in front of a crowd of 6,000 spectators. In 2010 and 2018, the arena was one of the venues of the men's
Volleyball World Championship Volleyball World Championship may refer to * FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship * FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship The FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship is an international volleyball competition contested by the senior w ...
. The main financial sponsors are Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena (a bank foundation) and Unicoop Firenze (a supermarket chain). It has hosted the concerts of: Pooh, Vasco Rossi,
Alessandra Amoroso Alessandra Amoroso (; born 12 August 1986 in Galatina, Province of Lecce) is an Italian pop/soul singer, songwriter, producer and TV personality. She was the winner of the 2009 edition of the Italian talent show ''Amici di Maria De Filippi''. S ...
, Mark Knopfler,
Eros Ramazzotti Eros Walter Luciano Ramazzotti (; born 28 October 1963) is an Italian pop singer, musician and songwriter. He is popular in Italy and most European countries, and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, as he has released most of his albums in bo ...
,
Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...
, Bob Dylan, Michael Bublé, Max Pezzali,
Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depeche ...
, Neil Young,
Lenny Kravitz Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. His style incorporates elements of rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop and folk. Kravitz won the Grammy Award for Best Male Roc ...
,
Marilyn Manson Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer of the band which shares his name, of which he remains the only constant member since it ...
,
Biagio Antonacci Biagio Antonacci (; born 9 November 1963) is an Italian singer-songwriter from Milan. Biography Early life Biagio Antonacci was born in Milan and was raised in one of its suburbs (Rozzano). Despite learning how to play the drums at a young a ...
,
Zucchero Adelmo Fornaciari (; born 25 September 1955), more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero (), is an Italian singer, musician and songwriter. His stage name is the Italian word for "sugar", as his elementary teach ...
, Renato Zero, Francesco Guccini,
Jovanotti Lorenzo Cherubini (; born 27 September 1966), better known as Jovanotti (), is an Italian singer-songwriter, rapper and disc jockey. The name Jovanotti derives from ''giovanotti'', the plural form of the Italian word ''giovanotto'' ("young man") ...
, Tiziano Ferro, Gianna Nannini, Subsonica,
Giorgia Giorgia is the Italian cognate of the female name Georgia. Notable people with the name include: Arts and entertainment *Giorgia (singer), Italian singer, born ''Giorgia Todrani'' *Giorgia Fumanti, Italian-Canadian soprano and singer of operatic po ...
, Caetano Veloso, Boy George, Claudio Baglioni,
Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...
, Antonello Venditti, Elisa,
Laura Pausini Laura Pausini (; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian singer. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with her debut single "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an internat ...
, Litfiba,
Marco Mengoni Marco Mengoni (; born 25 December 1988) is an Italian pop singer-songwriter who rose to fame in 2009, after winning the third season of Italian talent show ''X Factor''. Since that he has sold over 2.8 million records in Italy, peaking the I ...
, and many more. On 11 June 2010, it hosted WWE in Europe with Smackdown. From 22 to 29 September 2013 the Forum will host the
2013 UCI Road World Championships The 2013 UCI Road World Championships took place in Tuscany, Italy, between 22 and 29 September 2013. The Championships consisted of 12 events for elite, under-23 and junior cyclists. It was the 86th Road World Championships, the 13th in Italy a ...
. As a result, the city has recently paved all the principal streets near the Forum.
Bellator MMA Bellator MMA (formerly Bellator Fighting Championships) is an American mixed martial arts promotion (entertainment), promotion founded in 2008 and based in Santa Monica, California, owned and operated as a subsidiary of television and media cong ...
has hosted two events in the arena Bellator 168 on 10 December 2016 and Bellator 188 on 9 December 2017 which were both headlined by Italian fighter
Alessio Sakara Alessio Sakara (born September 2, 1981) is an Italian professional mixed martial artist, former professional boxer and Sanshou kickboxer, currently competing in the Light Heavyweight division. A professional competitor since 2002, Sakara has al ...
.


Current use

During the summer when the main arena is not utilized, the compound of the Mandela Forum hosts two open-air cinemas with 600 and 250 seats that operate for the whole of the summer holidays season. At the entrance of the Mandela Forum there is a mural painted by the South African
Ndebele Ndebele may refer to: *Southern Ndebele people, located in South Africa *Northern Ndebele people, located in Zimbabwe and Botswana Languages *Southern Ndebele language, the language of the South Ndebele *Northern Ndebele language, the language o ...
artist Esther Mahalangu inaugurated on 17 November 2010 by the Minister of Arts and Culture of the Republic of South Africa Paul Mashatile. For the
2013–14 Euroleague The 2013–14 Turkish Airlines Euroleague was the 14th season of the modern era of Euroleague Basketball and the fourth under the title sponsorship of the Turkish Airlines. Including the competition's previous incarnation as the FIBA Europe Champi ...
season it was the home arena of
Italian League The Italic League or Most Holy League was an international agreement concluded in Venice on 30 August 1454, between the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, and the Kingdom of Naples, following the Tr ...
club Mens Sana Basket. The Dave Matthews Band performed live there on 18 October 2015. In February 2018, the Mandela Forum hosted the 50th edition of the Italian Basketball Cup, Italy's first-tier cup competition


See also

*
List of indoor arenas in Italy The following is a list of indoor arenas in Italy with capacity for at least 4,000 spectators. Most of the arenas in this list are multi-purpose venues, used for individual sports, team sport as well as cultural and political events. Currently in ...


References


External links

* {{Nelson Mandela, state=collapsed Indoor arenas in Italy Basketball venues in Italy Volleyball venues in Italy Sports venues in Florence Sports venues completed in 1985 1985 establishments in Italy