Spruce-smart look for Lecce home venue

Article posted by Coliseum, August 16^th, 2024

Image: U.S. Lecce (Facebook)

The Serie A club Lecce has announced that €36m have been allocated to revamp their home stadium – the Stadio Via del Mare in Lecce, Italy.

‘Football Italia’ stated that as part of the refurbishment exercise all the seats in the arena will be covered.

The Unione Sportiva Lecce, commonly referred to as Lecce, is a professional Italian football club based in Lecce, Apulia (Italy). The club plays in Serie A, the top level of the Italian football pyramid.

The Stadio Ettore Giardiniero – Via del Mare, known as the Stadio Via del Mare, is a multipurpose stadium in Lecce, Italy. It is mostly used for football matches and is the home of U.S. Lecce. The stadium was built in 1966 and holds 40,670 spectators.

‘Football Italia’ further stated that the above funds have been allocated as part of a bigger plan to host the Giochi del Mediterraneo (Mediterranean Games) tournament in nearby Taranto (Italy) in 2026 with few events to be held in Lecce.

The 2026 Mediterranean Games (Giochi del Mediterraneo 2026), officially known as the XX Mediterranean Games and commonly known as Taranto 2026, is a forthcoming international multisport event that is scheduled to be held from August 21^st-September 3^rd, 2026 in Taranto, Italy.

Out of the total amount of €275m set aside for the Mediterranean Games, €36m have been allocated for the redevelopment work of the Stadio Via del Mare.

The entire structure will be totally reconfigured with all the seats to be covered by a roof.

Avant-garde

Stated Saverio Sticchi Damiani, Lecce President, “The Mediterranean Games have paved the way for the total transformation of the Via del Mare. The revamp work will lend a state-of-the-art look to the facility and will make it more inviting for our fans.”

The rejig work could even lead to the arena being one of the venues for the EURO 2032 tournament which will be jointly hosted by Italy and Turkey.

The 2032 Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA EURO 2032 or simply EURO 2032, will be the 19th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organized by the UEFA for the senior men’s national teams of its member associations. Italy and Turkey will host the tournament which is scheduled to take place between June and July 2032.

Nyon (Switzerland)-based the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach football in Europe and the transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, as well as the West Asian countries of Cyprus, Armenia and Israel. The UEFA consists of 55 national association members. Since 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the FIFA and UEFA suspended all Russian national teams and clubs from any FIFA and UEFA competitions.

The Stadio Via del Mare was inaugurated in 1966 and has been refurbished twice in 1985 and 2019.

The price tag of the last renovation work which was carried out in 2019 stood at €4m which increased the maximum capacity of the venue to 31,461. The lighting rigs were improved, the ingress system for the physically challenged was streamlined and the restrooms were improvised.

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