San Siro Stadium rigmarole latest twist!

Article posted by Coliseum, February 14^th, 2025

Image: San Siro, Jose Luis Hidalgo R., CC BY 2.0

The San Siro Stadium (Milan, Italy) ‘fairy tale’ never seems to end. The latest chapter has unfolded. Undoubtedly, the top-flight teams of Italy – the Inter Milan and AC Milan – have been victims of bureaucratic overdose which has driven them up the wall all these years!

The latest in the San Siro Stadium (also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza) rigmarole is that both the teams – the Inter Milan and the AC Milan – are moving ahead with plans to build a new stadium (jointly) which will sit next to the San Siro and details of the new venue plans have emerged.

The planned arena will sit where the Meazza parking lot is presently lodged.

‘CORRIERE DELLA SERA’ stated that a 71,500-capacity stadium has been planned which will spread over 55,000 square meters of verdant area. The venue will boast underground parking with spots for 72,000 vehicles. The capital injection for constructing the venue will stand at more than a billion and the plan envisions developing the entire area skirting the San Siro Stadium.

Out of the 71,500 seats 13,000 will be ‘hospitality seats’ devoted to the VIP segment of the spectators comprising the corporate guests and will come armed with kitchens and other first-string facilities.

The top-notch teams are planning to present their venue project plans to the City of Milan by the first week of March.

If all the official procedures are a smooth sail exercise work will start on the top-of-the-heap clubs’ new home ground in 2027 and is expected to conclude in 2030. Once the new venue gets off the ground partial demolition work of the Meazza could begin.

The San Siro Stadium (also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza) is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy. It has a seating capacity of 80,018 making it the largest stadium in Italy and one of the largest stadiums in Europe. It is the home stadium of the Serie A teams AC Milan and Inter Milan.

The AC Milan, more commonly referred to as the Milan, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy (Italy). Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tier of Italian football.

The Inter Milan, commonly known as the Inter, 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 (Serie A) since its debut in 1909.

‘CORRIERE DELLA SERA’ further stated that a team of 50-60 people comprising consultants, engineers, designers, managers of the clubs, and their shareholder funds – Oaktree for Inter and RedBird for Milan – are preparing the stadium project report.

Los Angeles (US)-based Oaktree is a leader among global investment managers specializing in alternative investments with $205 billion in assets under management as of September 30th, 2024. The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented and risk-controlled approach to investments in credit, equity and real estate.

The RedBird Capital Partners is an American investment management firm founded in 2014 in New York by Gerry Cardinale. The company has assets under management of over $10 billion as of 2022.

The above team is diving into rounds of meetings to chalk out details like the planned venue stands, the acoustics and the distance between the seats. The entire exercise is being carried out at the request of the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala.

The project plans also envisages ingress to the planned facility through a ‘podium’, a covered structure that will surround the arena replacing the gates and the turnstiles.

Venue Design

The design of the planned venue has not yet been spelt out. Tenders are expected to be floated soon but as per reliable sources the famed architecture firm Populous is likely to be entrusted with the task of decking up the new home of Inter-Milan.

In December 2021, the top-notch clubs announced that the celebrated design studio Populous’ project – ‘The Cathedral’ – was being selected for their new stadium. However, that did not materialize.

Populous is a global architectural and design practice with regional headquarters in Kansas City (US), London (UK) and Brisbane (Australia) specializing in sports facilities, arenas and convention centers as well as in the planning and design of major special events.

Meazza as Museum

It is being planned to make the cultural icon – the San Siro Stadium – a museum. The plans include preserving a part of the Curva Sud (a curved section of the arena) and construct a kind of amphitheater where an array of activities can be held.

A hotel is likely to be constructed in the remaining area of 280,000 square meters and it will also be devoted for commercial spaces and parks will come up. Fifty five thousand (55,000) square meters of area will be devoted to ‘Green Zones’.

Price Tag

The price tag of building the above arena is projected to cost between €1bn (£833.5m/$1.04bn) and €1.5bn. The tab will be picked up partially by both Inter Milan and AC Milan and their respective owner funds – Oaktree and Redbird. The major investment will come in the form of loans for which Oaktree and Redbird are getting in touch with the two US banks – JP Morgan and Bank of America – and an Italian institution, Banco BPM.

The planned new spiffy structure coupled with the commercial spaces is likely to ensure a steady flow of revenue for both the clubs and will help in repaying the loans. The top-flights playing in a futuristic stadium will also facilitate brisk business at the ticket counters though contactless is the flavor in a post-COVID world. Be it through the ticket counters or contactless the revenue will be generated.

Fingers Crossed

Though the AC Milan and the Inter Milan are keeping their fingers crossed that the above venue plans will finally materialize but going by the past developments – the Inter-Milan’s Populous-conceptualized ‘The Cathedral’ dreams come-a-crashing, the die is cast that the San Siro Stadium cannot be torn down at any cost after a new measure was taken to protect a part of the structure way back in 2023, the Inter Milan and the AC Milan deciding not very long back to build their own respective stadiums – the Inter Milan venue project in the area of Rozzano outside Milano and the AC Milan home venue plans in San Donato in Milan – both the teams still have a Plan B in mind if the nod for the above venue becomes a feet-dragging episode.

And the top-flights have enough reasons to be apprehensive as red tapism in Italy has made them tear their hair apart all these years vis-à-vis the San Siro Stadium demolition issue!

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