Lega Basket Femminile is pleased to announce that Opening Day 2026 will take place in Campobasso, at “La Molisana Arena”, on 3 and 4 October.
The event, now in its twenty-fourth edition, will kick off the 2026/2027 Serie A1 season, with six matches scheduled. Ahead of Saturday and Sunday’s matches, Campobasso will also host the LBF Oscars Night on Friday, celebrating the highlights of the past season with an evening of awards and music.
The list of matches will be announced tomorrow, with the publication of the Serie A1 fixtures, whilst the match schedule will be the subject of a forthcoming LBF announcement. Twelve teams will compete at the venue in Molise to kick off a new championship, continuing a tradition that has now become a hallmark of the Women’s Basketball League.
For Campobasso, this will be the very first time it has hosted Opening Day, and the event will be held in Molise for the first time in its history, bringing the total number of regions to have hosted the event to thirteen (Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo, Lazio, Campania, Apulia, Sicily, Sardinia and, from this year, Molise). The capital of Molise will host an LBF event for the third time in its history, following the 2019 Serie A2 Italian Cup and the 2023 Serie A1 Italian Cup.
These were the comments made by LBF President Massimo Protani following the announcement: “ It is a great pleasure for Lega Basket Femminile to bring Opening Day to Campobasso for the first time, a town that already has a significant history of hosting LBF events, specifically the Italian Cups. In both cases – for both the A2 and A1 leagues – the two events proved to be great successes in terms of attendance, interest and organisation. The LBF is delighted to return to a community characterised by great passion and enthusiasm, which is naturally reflected in the commitment of local institutions and sponsors to basketball, and in particular in the impact that a club like La Molisana has on local sport, through an ambitious project with a European scope and a strong focus on young people. “An example of an organisational structure,” concludes Protani, “with which we are delighted to collaborate for one of the key events of our season.”
There is, of course, also great satisfaction throughout the La Molisana Magnolia Basket Campobasso organisation. Chairwoman Antonella Palmieri confirms the atmosphere of great anticipation within the red-and-blue camp ahead of 3 and 4 October: “Celebrating our tenth season of sporting existence,” she says, “and doing so by hosting the Opening Day at ‘La Molisana Arena’ is a source of great satisfaction for our club, as well as recognition and a lasting mark of appreciation from the Women’s Basketball League and the Federation, who have already honoured us in the past by entrusting us with the organisation of two Coppa Italia Final Eights and the Under-17 and Under-19 national youth finals, in recognition of the quality of the work we have carried out. For our loyal supporters, who are particularly passionate about women’s basketball, being able to enjoy a weekend featuring no fewer than six top-flight matches, evenly split between Saturday and Sunday, will certainly be a welcome treat, especially in the run-up to another season that promises to be intense and packed with action. For our part, we can’t wait for the first weekend in October to arrive so we can look forward to an event that will undoubtedly generate enthusiasm and serve as an excellent platform for promoting our sport.”
