MILAN’S SAN SIRO stadium is closer to being demolished after Italy’s heritage authority found that the iconic stadium cannot be protected for cultural or historic reasons.
“The property named ‘Giuseppe Meazza Stadium (San Siro) has no cultural interest and as such is excluded from the protection provisions,” the Lombardy region of Italy’s cultural heritage ministry wrote in a report, according to the AGI news agency.
AC Milan and Inter Milan, who share the stadium to the west of the city, have launched their bid to knock down the San Siro and build a new 60,000-capacity home on the same site.
City authorities have been divided over the project and requested the opinion of Italy’s heritage authorities.
The report found that as the San Siro has undergone continuous transformation since being built in 1926, with only a small part of the original stadium remaining, it would not be subject to protection.
Although approval from Italy’s heritage body is not the final decision, it could be an important step towards both teams’ hope of redeveloping the site.
The clubs want to build a new ground adjacent to the current San Siro, while the old stadium would make way for an area “dedicated to sports, entertainment, and shopping”.
The two clubs presented their projects last September and estimated that it would require an investment of €1.2 billion..
Milan Mayor Guiseppe Sala insists he wants to renovate the existing stadium so that it could celebrate its centenary in 2026 by hosting the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics that year.
Both clubs are former European giants with AC Milan having won the Champions League seven times while Inter were the last Italian team to win the European title, when they lifted the trophy for the third time in 2010.
Neither have won the Serie A title since AC Milan triumphed in 2011.
Iconic yes, but not exactly aesthetic
@Gareth Ward: ah I dunno, I like it. I was there last year for a game and it has that big football feel about it that you don’t get from modern stadia. That being said, the proposals for the new ground look unreal
@Gareth Ward: moron . One of the greatest stadiums in the world. I have been in most of the famous ones except the azteca. Abosolute philistine to suggest this is not one of the greatest .
@Shane Gill: i want to get to an inter game b4 they bulldoze it.are tickets hard got? My 2nd fav stadium ever since cameroon v argentina italia 90!!
@Nigel Delaney: didn’t have any trouble with tickets. Went to an AC game v Sampdoria and got tickets from the ticket centre at the ground the day of the game.
@Shane Gill: thanks lad.Trish is mad to get to Milan too.win win!!
Fabulous stadium.
Was there a while ago. It’s definitely seen better days.
Amazing that two internationally renowned teams playing the same sport can use common sense and share a stadium.
The Aviva and Croke Park are underutilized assets, money going/gone towards paying the debts could have been put into grassroots.
At least the Bertie Bowl wasn’t built
@Goban Saor: By “sharing” you mean the professional rugby and soccer guys want to use the facilities of their more successful amateur counterparts.
@Goban Saor: They are only still doing it now due to Italian politics making it really difficult for many teams to get approval to build stadiums in Italy. A lot of the stadium are owned by City Council who don’t want to lose out on rent and have empty stadium.
@Seamus Cummins: That’s problem in a nutshell. Napoli have had same issues with renovating Stadio San Paolo. Naples Municipal Council owns the stadium and doesn’t want to pay for upgrades.