According to the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (IDESCAT), in 2022 the population in Sitges increased by 9.45% compared to the previous five years. The population growth is leaving sports organisations without space to provide an optimal service, and is causing some of the town’s clubs to leave out boys and girls who want to be part of the teams in the summer. Many clubs have the structure and demand to be able to grow, but the current saturation in equipment prevents this from happening.
The problem, however, is not only in the number of athletes. Currently, there are facilities such as the Pins Vens pavilion that is home to up to five different sports – basketball, roller hockey, futsal, figure skating and rhythmic gymnastics – and which requires real juggling to try to balance training and competitions of all the groups.
The current local government, aware that this is a ‘priority’ issue and that ‘the deficit in sports facilities is obvious’, has committed to ‘reverse the situation’ by working on five projects that will derail the current pressure to which both the sports groups and the facilities themselves are subject.
The first of the projects will be the creation of a football pitch between the Blanca Subur ground and the Pins Vens multipurpose ground, where rugby and field hockey are currently practised. It will be tendered for construction shortly and will host football as a priority, although the intention is that it has a ‘multi-sport vocation’ and that ‘other sports can be celebrated from time to time’. The intention of the council is that the new football pitch will be finished by 2025.
Another of the big projects that the council is planning is the long-term creation of a new pavilion in La Plana, very close to the Can Pei Design Centre. Despite being a project for the future, the council is already planning ahead for this much-needed facility in the town, which would decongest a facility that is currently very saturated, such as the Pins Vens pavilion.
Another of the actions that the council intends to carry out is the adaptation of the old rugby training ground, located in La Plana, to transform it into a hockey pitch. The measure, however, would be provisional and would serve to ease congestion of activities at the multipurpose stadium of Pins Vens, which is currently shared by rugby, field hockey, Gaelic football and, occasionally, a team from UE Sitges. As it is a simple operation, it is expected that the field can be in operation during 2024.
With the same idea of freeing up spaces, the council also wants to cover three basketball courts in the Miquel Utrillo School yard in 2024, to ensure basketball and roller hockey training can still take place on rainy days.
The fifth action proposed by the council is the rehabilitation of the Masia of Santa Bárbara to house the rhythmic gymnastics and rehearsals of the Colla Jove de Castellers of Sitges.
At the same time, improvements have also been planned in other sports facilities that are currently working, such as the multi-sport courts in les Botigues, and work will also be done on the creation of a bar in the Pins Vens pavilion.
The population of Sitges will continue to grow and the sports facilities have already reached their limits. The transformation of sports infrastructures is a necessity, and measures to alleviate equipment congestion are already on the table, according to the council.
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