Milan and Inter presented design concepts for the new 60,000-seater stadium and explained why “the Stadio Meazza has run its course.”
Inter CEO Alessandro Antonelli and Milan President Paolo Scaroni pitched the ideas to the gathered crowd in a livestreamed Press conference.
Milan and Inter presented design concepts for the new 60,000-seater stadium and explained why “the Stadio Meazza has run its course.”
Inter CEO Alessandro Antonelli and Milan President Paolo Scaroni pitched the ideas to the gathered crowd in a livestreamed Press conference.
“The Stadio Meazza, as it stands, is no longer suited to two big clubs with the ambition of a main role on the European stage. That’s just a fact and compared to stadiums around Europe, they are a whole other issue,” said Scaroni.
“We love the Meazza, but it has run its course. The opportunity to help transform this zone of the city should also be welcomed, because except for on match days, it is an empty concrete space with nothing in it.
“The investment would be worth €1.2bn and provide a modern stadium hosting around 60,000 fans, but also an area that would be used by citizens 365 days a year and with large green areas.
“Our project will be much greener than around the current San Siro, more eco-sustainable and finally with less of a visual and acoustic impact on the city. The current stadium is 68 metres tall, the projects we’re looking at would be at most 30 metres.
“The new stadium would have a 60 per cent smaller acoustic impact on the city, as it would be closed compared to the open structure we have now.”
Inter chief Antonelli also commented that the city of Milan represents fashion and the vanguard, including radical changes with the Expo construction.
“We wanted a project that can fit in with Milano 2030 city revitalisation plans, but also a stadium that can be suited to future generations, which is for the citizens of Milano and not just its football fans.
“People ask, why can’t we restructure the Stadio Meazza? The first tier was built in 1926, the second in 1956 and a third added in 1990 with the roof. These were placed one on top of the other, but have very little connection between them. This means there are very limited spaces for businesses and restoration.
“There is also the problem of visibility, as the first tier only has a view of the pitch and people there cannot see the choreography. The spaces between one row and another are extremely tight and with new rules will not just be an issue of comfort, but of safety.
“Our analysis showed that if we wanted to reconstruct the stadium, we’d need to demolish the first tier, work on the third, the towers and lowering the roof.
“There would be a radical restructuring and we realised that, either way, the San Siro we see today would lose its identity that it has today. The capacity would be inferior to 60,000 during the process and entire areas difficult to reach.
“If we were to intervene on the current San Siro stadium, we’d have to ask our fans to emigrate to arenas 100-200km away with certainly inferior capacity to the Meazza, for example Verona’s Bentegodi, the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino and Bologna’s Stadio Dall’Ara.
“Since 2002, there has been only one new stadium built in Italy, compared to 24 all over Europe.”
The local council has not given the all-clear for the project yet, but the two clubs have already started to proceed with architectural plans and reduced the choice to two designs.
“We wanted the architects to express something connected to the tradition and city of Milan, in other words a stadium capable of attracting tourists and fans from all over the world who could only witness this arena in Milan,” continued Antonelli.
“The sharing of the project with the fans and citizens begins today, because we want to take this journey together, gather all opinions and study them.
“The two projects that have made it to the final cut are Populous and Manica.”