Contrary to recent reports, AC Milan still have plans for the San Donato patch of land that they purchased, related to a new arena.
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A report from local newspaper Malpensa24 claimed earlier this week that Milan’s owner Gerry Cardinale contacted Mauro Vitiello, who is the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Varese, to seek information about the Malpensa Fiere area as a potential arena site.
This arose further doubts about what exactly RedBird Capital intend to do with the plot they have in San Donato, even if there has been talk of moving the youth training complex down to the South-East of the city.
Focus remains on San Donato
However, it seems that Milan do not intend to abandon the land in the San Francesco area of San Donato, purchased a few years ago.
According to Il Cittadino di Lodi (via MilanPress), the Rossoneri intend to use the San Francesco area to build an arena if they get a franchise in the NBA Europe league.
Sources close to the club claim that they want to develop the area, which they paid €40m for, with a new state of the art indoor venue. At the moment, however, Milan have not yet submitted any official proposal to the council to amend their project, but could do so by the end of April.
As a reminder, Milan purchased the Sportlifecity ‘vehicle’, which had already had plans approved precisely for an arena in the part of San Donato. It was modified to a new stadium plan, but would have to be changed back and go through various processes again.