The path towards a new stadium has been littered with obstacles for AC Milan and Inter, with more laying on the road ahead.
Calciomercato.com report that there is ‘no peace’ when it comes to the San Siro project, after Milan and Inter put forward their offer to buy the current stadium and surrounding areas last month. On Tuesday, new doubts have emerged that would hinder the plans.
Let’s start with the statements of the Mayor Beppe Sala, who spoke to journalists at a forum: “Is this the right time for the new stadium at San Siro? We can do it, knowing that we will have hostility from some, we will have appeals.
“I cannot expect everyone to agree on the solution we have found. But the risk that Milan will go to San Donato is very high, since they have already invested a lot of money in it. Let it be clear, however, that if we don’t succeed by October, it will be difficult for it to be done later.”
There will be hostility, the mayor declared, and such has not been long in coming. There are still 15 days left before April 30, the date on which the public notice is due to expire, so until then the council are obliged to look for other parties possibly interested in San Siro.
Various objections have erupted. For example, during the Municipio 7 meeting, the climate was quite tense, with some residents of the San Siro area – who spoke before the councillors – underlined the critical aspects of the project.
In particular, for the citizens there would be no positive repercussions for the neighbourhood from the proximity to the new facility. Furthermore, there is concern about the issue of public greenery with the cancellation of over 50,000m² of greenery in the Parco dei Capitani.
There is the doubt about whether – with the new San Siro – 50% of total greenery will be reached in the areas surrounding the stadium. Finally, there is the asbestos issue with the two clubs that have not yet specified how it will be removed, with what timing and at what cost.
As also described by Calcio e Finanza, an appeal to the TAR by the committees to stop the operation to sell the San Siro area to Inter and Milan has been confirmed. The official announcement came directly from the leader of the Greens at Palazzo Marino Carlo Monguzzi, one of the main supporters of the impossibility of selling the stadium.
Monguzzi declared: “A preliminary conference of services with the tender still open is a legal structure from a land of plenty. The entrepreneur Trotta wrote to us saying that he was unable to participate in the tender due to the ridiculous duration and prohibitive perimeter.
“The public debate, although fake, said the opposite of what the council wrote in the resolutions. The referendum was prevented by the Municipality. We continue our mobilisation.”
Asbestos? LOL. San Siro will never be demolished then. End of story.
I hope these plans fail simply because San Siro should never be demolished. It’s a beautiful piece of Italian sports history, and whatever spillede box wouod arrive in its will never be able to replace it.
It might not be a capable football stadium in the future, but I am sure it will work for one-time events and tourists.
Milan can build somewhere else, and hopefully without Inter 🙏
Agreed. Build in San Donato. WITHOUT INTER.
Let Inter keep renting out the San Siro until 2050. They don’t have the means to finance building a new stadium unless Oaktree authorize to use their own money (which they won’t).
Even if they buy the San Siro, given all the restrictions, likely they won’t be able to renovate or modernize it anyway.
Are we still jerking off to this stadium news? Just build in San Donato.
Complications regarding a shared stadium actually makes me happy. I rather rot in the san siro than build a new stadium with inter. People that want to build a stadium with inter are not real passionate Milan fans. Period.
We’re never going to get a new stadium, either at San Siro or San Donato. Euro 2032 will come and they’ll be playing the games at all the 50-70 year old stadiums that aren’t Juventus or Atalanta’s stadiums.
I can’t for the life of me understand why there’s so much delay in proceeding with the San Siro project.
In London, the new Wembley was built on the very site of the iconic old Wembley, where England won the World Cup in 1966. Likewise, Tottenham built their new stadium on the site of their old one. And Arsenal built their new stadium next to their old one. All this since the turn of the century.
Meanwhile, in languid Milan, at least 5 years since the San Siro project was first mooted, they’re still haggling over whether to build a new stadium to replace the aging Giuseppe Meazza. Time is money. How many more years (5? 10? 15?) must fans wait before this project finally gets underway?
Fabio Capello recently complained that football in Serie A had become slow compared with leagues elsewhere in Europe, notably, the Premier League. What about the speed at which major construction projects get the go-ahead in Italy? Has everything in Bella Italia become synonymous with ‘slow’?
It would be nice for ACM to have its own stadium but sharing one with Inter in a central location in Milan makes a lot of economic sense. Why waste money by going out far from the city just to have a home of our own? Sure, I appreciate that Inter are our city rivals, but when it’s in the interest of both clubs to pool their resources and work together, as the stadium project clearly is, they should do so.
Spend ACM’s scarce financial resources on buying and retaining top players, not on building our own bespoke stadium.
Of course, if the local authorities keep delaying the San Siro project, we should walk away and go and do our own thing at San Donato. But if work on the new Meazza can definitely start no later than 2026, I think it should remain ACM’s preferred option.
What the hell is wrong with Italians?!