Yesterday, the Milan Council presented their plan to renovate San Siro in what would be a bid to get AC Milan and/or Inter to remain at the iconic stadium.
We outlined the details of the pitch in a feature last night, but La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) have recalled the key facts in their paper this morning.
The renovation project of the San Siro designed by the architect Giulio Fenyves of the Arco Associati studio was presented at the Palazzo Marino (city hall) yesterday.
It involves the construction of a fourth tier, the possibility of clubs continuing to play at San Siro during the works, a capacity of 70,000 spectators plus another 5,000 internal seats and a total cost estimated at €300m.
Considering the details of the project, it is Mayor Sala’s words that spark the debate as he revealed the possibility of granting clubs surface rights for ‘a very long period’.
Milan, as imagined, are not particularly tempted by the proposal. The project for the new stadium in San Donato is well underway – the Council there have approved it, the program agreement will start soon – and the first €40m investment has already happened.
Not only that, the Mayor of San Donato has just announced six meetings in February to inform citizens and institutions. In short, Milan remains focused on that option and does not express an opinion on the new project hypothesis, which it has not seen closely.
The clear impression is that the margin for maneuver is minimal, almost zero. Of course, Milan will not shy away from the answers that the Council requests, even if they believe they must give them together with Inter.
Inter meanwhile have not expressed an opinion on the merits of the renovation project simply because it has never been involved, as if to say that if there had really been a desire to get to the bottom of things, perhaps the Council would have called the two clubs earlier.
Furthermore, it is almost impossible for Steven Zhang’s club to take into consideration the San Siro hypothesis on its own, without Milan, even with the offer of the surface right mentioned by Sala.
So it’s almost DOA. Then, “Inter meanwhile have not expressed an opinion on the merits of the renovation project simply because it has never been involved, as if to say that if there had really been a desire to get to the bottom of things, perhaps the Council would have called the two clubs earlier.” Basically its political stunt. It’s a shame because public fund were almost certainly used to pay for the architect’s work. A small number in the grand scheme of things, but still, tens of thousands of euros just to put on a show.
Probably it is only communication from the municipality here, trying to convince the public that they are not the bad guys in the story. San Siro has been a major public debate in Lombardia during last year’s regional elections.
At first, the municipality probably thought they had leverage. The mayor of Paris Anne Hildalgo is having the same tug of war with PSG, because Qataris want to buy the Parc des Princes owned by the city while she’s only offering renovations and to keep the lease. Then Jerry arrived and the municipality probably know for more than a year now that this guy wants to build his own stadium. And San Donato is dreaming of the tax revenues from such a project, as it is currently a no man’s land, so they’re obviously open to anything.
Just a political stunt. They claim they have a project but will approve it after the two clubs agree to stay in San Siro, which will never happen… and even if the clubs agreed to stay, most likely a committee (or many) would need to approve the project and there are no guarantees that it will happen. If this project was beneficial it would have already happened, instead of popping now that the clubs are looking to leave.
Too little, too late. Buy the area of San Donato, and build the stadium, shops, hotels, etc the way that you want it.
Hopefully it will serve as a lesson of what can happen to the other big cities, their citizens and their mayors.
Play them a little. Say yes to them, make them renovate it and then make our own stadium. That is the best revenge