This Isn’t Your Movie Set: Why Bari Fans Won’t Tune in to ADL’s Latest Production

U2’s Pride (In the Name of Love) was a bizarre musical choice to welcome Bari and Catanzaro on the pitch at the Stadio San Nicola on Friday night.

Both feelings, one suspects, are conspicuously absent from Aurelio De Laurentiis’ vocabulary when it comes to the club he has owned for the past six years. 

For a man who has built his empire on movies, the 75-year-old seldom follows scripts.

The Napoli owner is often brutally forthright in his assessments and cares little for the opinions of the fans, particularly those of the clubs he owns.

De Laurentiis purchased Bari in 2018 after they went bankrupt for the second time in four years and has never made a mystery of the fact the Galletti aren’t his main priority, going as far as describing them as Napoli’s B team.

The movie mogul went a step further in May, suggesting Bari were destined to remain in Serie B for the foreseeable future.

Under current FIGC – the Italian FA – regulations, dual ownership is permitted in Italy, provided the clubs operate in different divisions.

The law is destined to change by 2028, when De Laurentiis, who has since passed control of the club to his son, suggested his family could step away. 

And what of Bari then, one may ask? As De Laurentiis, with typically impeccable timing, suggested on the eve of the relegation play-off last season, they “will be stuck in Serie B or go under.”

Understandably, neither prospect is appealing to a fan base starved of top-flight football for the past 14 years. 

To make matters worse, De Laurentiis’ suggestion Bari may have to be content with Serie B came just 12 months after the Biancorossi were seconds away from winning promotion, until Leonardo Pavoletti’s 94th minute goal sealed a crushing 2-1 win on aggregate for Cagliari at the San Nicola.

The Napoli owner may have rescued Bari after they crashed out of professional football, but in the eyes of the fans he’s long stopped playing the role of the benefactor.

That is if he ever took on the part at all.

“This isn’t Naples, this isn’t your personal movie set,” the ultras in the Curva Nord at the San Nicola chanted during Bari’s 1-1 draw against Catanzaro.

“Bari isn’t your playground. De Laurentiis, get out!”

De Laurentiis may not get out anytime soon, but thousands of Bari fans have stayed out so far this season, voting with their feet to make their discontent clear.

Bari fans are voting with their feet

Bari sold 7,154 season tickets this season, the smallest figure since De Laurentiis took over the club.

To put the figure into context, in his first campaign  as owner, the Galletti sold 7,680 season tickets, despite being in Serie D.

Just under 51,000 fans filtered through the San Nicola’s turnstiles for the first three home matches of this season, approximately 15,000 fewer than over the course of the three home fixtures last term and 26,700 fewer than in the corresponding period two years ago.

Because of the San Nicola’s enormous size, empty seats have a striking visual impact.

Built specifically for Italia ‘90, the 58,270-seat venue is Italy’s third-biggest arena in the country behind the San Siro and the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, yet it never sold out until 24 years after it first opened. 

At its raucous best, the San Nicola can be an intimidating place for visiting teams.

“Our main focus is to get more fans in the stadium right now,” Bari manager Moreno Longo told Gazzetta dello Sport last week.

“We need the team to perform well and get some wins. It’s not a small thing: this city could easily fill the stadium with 50-60,000 fans, something you don’t see very often in Serie A.”

That may sound a little ambitious considering that Bari’s average attendance has dropped from 21,900 to just under 17,400 so far this season.

And yet, that figure is still big enough to comfortably be the third-highest in Serie B, behind Palermo and Sampdoria.

In terms of total fans through the turnstiles, meanwhile, Bari are streets ahead of both their rivals this season.

Plainly, for all of their travails on and off the pitch, passion for football still burns bright in Bari.

Can Longo guide Bari to Serie A?

And having escaped relegation by the barest of margins through a relegation play-off last season, the Baresi could still mount a promotion challenge this time around.

It would be a fine feat for Longo who, like his predecessors, has had to operate on a budget in the transfer window, relying almost exclusively on loan deals.

Friday’s night draw against Catanzaro was Bari’s seventh match without a loss and while they remain 12th in Serie B, they are level on points with Cesena, who currently occupy the final playoff berth.

But if Longo’s men are to mount a promotion challenge, they must start taking their chances.

Against Catanzaro, the Galletti could have been out of sight by the second half but Kevin Lasagna, Cesar Falletti and Giuseppe Sibilli all spurned chances to add to Mehdi Dorval’s 30th minute opener.

Almost inevitably, Pietro Iemmello silenced the San Nicola 15 minutes from time, holding Bari to a third consecutive draw.

“We didn’t play our best game, but we had plenty of opportunities to score,” Longo conceded after the game.  

“Our inability to finish those chances has been a recurring issue this season.”

Returning to Serie A would be a blockbuster for Bari but not one De Laurentiis would be too keen on financing.