The Mayor of San Donato has admitted that he is more than willing to have a discussion with AC Milan over the potential of building a new stadium there.
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Gerry Cardinale and RedBird Capital are first of all aiming to build in the La Maura Hippodrome area and it is the priority to try and get a concrete plan in place for that particular site, given that revenues of €100-150m are possible with a new Milan-owned stadium.
However, Tuttosport (via MilanNews) this morning confirmed that there are alternative areas in mind if La Maura is not feasible – primarily the former Falck steelworks area in Sesto San Giovanni which is out towards the north east of the city – but other locations have been mentioned.
Speculation has now emerged that there is another site being considered, namely the San Donato region of the city which is to south east and has an area earmarked for a sporting facility. The Mayor of the comune – Francesco Squeri – spoke on Radio Rossonera.
“The hypothesis of a new AC Milan stadium in San Donato was born no later than ten days ago, we hadn’t had any contact before. A discussion and work table was opened to see also the effects on the city,” he said.
“Milan considers the site interesting for the new stadium because it is very visible, well served by the San Donato railway station, you are at the underground station in fifteen minutes on foot, we are halfway between ring road and motorway junction.
“For Milan, therefore, the site is ideal for viability, visibility and moreover, the PGT already foresees the use of sports for the S.Francesco area with the still valid project of SportLifeCity – a 23,000-seat arena – therefore, a not too long time variant would be needed which our technical office has estimated at 6-8 months and from what I have been able to understand, speed is one of the main aspects required by Milan.
“For the city of San Donato there would be advantages and disadvantages, so with great honesty we will open a working table and see the project in detail and then evaluate it.
“There are aspects such as, for example, doubling the number of people in the municipality in matchdays that with a broad and shared project would be surmountable. There will be other meetings, Milan informed us with great honesty that they also have other plans besides ours. We will see.
“We are an administration born from two civic lists and we will sit down very seriously around a table: if the conditions are right, we’ll go ahead, otherwise we won’t negotiate with Milan for months because we understand that for them, every month that passes is a problem and it wouldn’t be fair or serious to do so.”
