No dragging feet over new arena: A.C. Milan

Article posted by Coliseum, October 18^th, 2021

Image: Populous

It is claimed that the Serie A club A.C. Milan’s Board (Italy) have already privately communicated to the Council that they want to go ahead with the building of a new stadium with or without its peer team Inter Milan.

The ‘Yardbarker’ stated that journalist Franco Ordine’s latest column for ‘Milan News’ highlights how – without a new stadium – A.C. Milan will simply continue to generate less revenue that the elite sides in Europe. Now that the election is over and Milan Mayor Beppe Sala has been re-elected, the time for dragging feet over the new arena in Milan is over and it is time to take a concrete decision on the same.

The A.C. Milan is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980-1981 and 1982-1983 seasons, in the top flight of Italian football, known as Serie A since 1929-1930.

The Inter Milan is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy (Italy). Inter is the only Italian side to have always competed in the top flight of Italian football since its debut in 1909.

San Siro, officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, which is the home of A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 75,923, making it one of the largest stadiums in Europe, and the largest in Italy.

On June 24^th, 2019, A.C. Milan and Inter Milan announced their intention to build a new stadium to replace San Siro. The new 60,000- capacity stadium, which would be constructed next to San Siro, is anticipated to cost US$800 million and was earlier expected to be ready for the 2022-2023 seasons.

The eminent design practice Populous is behind The Cathedral, a proposed scheme for a new 60,000-seat stadium for the Italian professional football clubs A.C. Milan and Inter Milan.

The ‘Yardbarker’ further stated that Sala has gone on record before to express concerns about the financial situation of Inter, stating, “There were no guarantees from the Inter shareholder”.

Ordine further writes that the Chinese retail company Suning’s accounts and investments are at risk of default, something which has a relative bearing on the Milan stadium project.

The reasons are essentially two-fold. The first is that the 99-year concession period provided for in the contract guarantees the fact that the Zhang family (Zhang Kangyang is a Chinese businessman and Chairman of the Italian football club Inter Milan) will no longer be in control of Inter. The second is that Elliott Management (official proprietor of A.C. Milan) have made it known to the Council that there are other private investors ready to come in and take Inter’s share of the investment so that work on the new arena can proceed.

Breaking ground and get going could have some positive consequences also on the accounts of Milan and Inter, so the time for procrastinating over the whole issue of building a new home for the top-flights is over.

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