End of Rimini Baseball Near?

In the Italian Facebook Group Casabase, yours truly learned that New Rimini, the successor of the bankrupt Rimini Pirates is evicted from its ballpark by the municipality of the Italian seaside resort. A debt of 400,000 Euro was the limit apparently.

The Pirati stadium will swiftly return to the ownership of the municipality of Rimini.
The Council of State rejected the appeal filed by Rimini Baseball ASD, definitively confirming that the club chaired by Ciro Esposito no longer has any right to manage the sports facility.

But that isn’t all. According to the municipality, the club has a huge debt of 400,000 Euros, containing approximately €185,000 in unpaid utility bills and outstanding taxes, including €81,000 in TARI (waste tax) and an additional €130,000 in other municipal taxes.

If that is not enough, chairman Esposito and former president Simone Pillisio will be on trial, facing charges for comments they posted on social media deemed offensive to the municipal body and its Sports Councilor Michele Lari.
But Pillisio has a company that is in debt with the Italian Base and Softball Federation FIBS, to make things more complicated.

Somehow, baseball in Italy is always hit by chairmen/owners that have no real interest in baseball. The predecessor of New Rimini, Rimini Pirati, was left to rot by its owner/chairman Pillisio after he pulled out and left the club alone with a huge debt, resulting in the successor New Rimini being sent down to the lowest possible level of baseball in Italy.

Baseball in Italy is simply not big enough for the clubs to be big spenders. The only two clubs with really big sponsors opted out of European baseball because the new format was too costly.

What will happen with New Rimini remains unclear. Without a ballpark to play, the 2025 season could have been the club’s swan song, especially when the affiliation with the FIBS has ended right before the 2026 season.