Leading-edge sports complex for Viola

Article posted by Coliseum, October 15^th, 2020

Video: ACF Fiorentina (YouTube)

Italian Serie A football club Fiorentina unfolded plans for a new avant-garde sports complex – Viola Park Sports Center – which will be housed just a stone’s throw away from the team’s home ground – Stadio Artemio Franchi – in Florence, Italy.

To this end, a press conference was held recently in the municipal office of Bagno a Ripoli (a metropolitan city in Florence) in the presence of the President of Fiorentina Rocco Commisso, Mayor of Bagno a Ripoli Francesco Casini, Marco Casamonti of the Archea Associati design studio and the Councillor of Tuscany Region, Vincenzo Ceccarelli.

ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina, is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
Fiorentina president Rocco Commisso informed that the ‘Viola Park’ project cost will come to more than €75m (£67m/$87m) and the tab will be picked up entirely by his family.

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The complex will attribute for 10 pitches boasting under soil heating, including one with a 1,500-seat stand for supporters and another will enjoy a seating capacity of 3,000, split into two stands.

Several other facilities will be on offer for Fiorentina’s senior men’s team, as well as the youth teams and women’s team, plus offices, multiuse event space, swimming pools, a media center and a small church.

Remarked Commisso, “I came to invest and leave something beautiful for the City of Florence. Fans for the first time will have a home that will be the largest in Italy, with 400 people arriving every day to work or train. On some days, there will also be 5,000 fans arriving.”

Commisso informed that ‘Viola Park’ is a tentative title for the project, and construction work is expected to begin on January 2, 2021, with the aim of completing the development by Christmas 2022.

He added, “It will be the largest sports complex in Italy. It will be awesome and will bring great pride for the territory of Florence and Tuscany.”

Mayor Casini said that the project marked the “largest private investment in the history of our area”.

Architect Casamonti with the help of slides described the structure explaining how “the birth of the new Viola Park, the name we have provisionally given, will enable the club and the men’s, women’s and youth teams to put their best foot forward.”

Meanwhile, fellow Serie A club Atalanta has been given the nod to host its Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League games at their residence Gewiss Stadium this season following a major refurbishment of the same.

Atalanta, is a professional football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. The club plays in Serie A, having gained promotion from Serie B in 2010-11.

In previous years, Atalanta has been forced to play its home games in Europe away from its main stadium at venues such as Italian football club Sassuolo’s home – Stadio Enzo Ricci in Sassuolo, Italy, Mapei Stadium in Reggio-Emilia, Italy, home venue of professional football club Reggio Audace F.C., as well as the San Siro in Milan, Italy, the home facility of professional football club AC Milan.

With the authorities concerned giving the green light for the same, the Gewiss Stadium will host Atalanta’s first Champions’ League group game of the new season on October 27^th against the Dutch (Netherlands) professional football club Ajax, followed by the visit of the professional football club from England Liverpool on November 3^rd and the arrival of Danish professional football club Midtjylland (Denmark) on December 1^st.

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