AC Milan president Paolo Scaroni believes that today’s development regarding the new stadium plans shows that the club’s intention to have a new state of the art home is very serious.
Milan’s official website confirms earlier today that the club took first formal step – in view of the potential future submission of a full project plan – by presenting to the San Donato council an Urban Development proposal for their new stadium project.
In addition to a new 70,000-seater stadium in the San Francesco region of the area, there will be a club Museum, an AC Milan store, the new headquarters, a hotel, and an entertainment district, as well as an Energy Centre for the production of sustainable power.
Scaroni gave a comment as part of the press release on what the development means for Milan’s plans and also what it says about the ownership.
“For over four years, we have embarked with conviction on a journey aimed at giving our Club one of the best stadiums of the world, which is able to accompany us into a victorious and sustainable future,” he said.
“This represents a preliminary step in the evolution of this process but, at the same time, it is further proof of our ownership’s commitment to guaranteeing continuous growth for AC Milan both on and off the pitch.”
Speaking at the presentation of the Urban Planning Variation proposal for the new stadium, Scaroni also gave some comments to reporters present which were relayed by MilanNews.
“We have started talking about a stadium for four years. Today we have arrived at this hypothesis of San Donato, which had already been on our agenda for over a year.
“Now we are working on it intensely, we have done in-depth work. We are only at the beginning, let’s start with a request for a variation.
“We have clear ideas about what the stadium will be like, we have done a series of in-depth analyses. In terms of authorisations, we are talking with the owners of SportLifeCity and obviously with the Municipality of San Donato. It is a process that is on the right track, but this does not mean that we have reached the end.
He was also asked what this means for the ‘new San Siro’ project that was launched with Inter a few days ago, amid recent claims from city mayor Beppe Sala that it is not dead yet.
“We are not here to say ‘goodbye and thank you’. The San Siro hypothesis is further away but is not dead yet. Having a new stadium in the San Siro area and also leaving the current facility standing it is unacceptable, even Mayor Sala says so.
“The superintendent’s position is uncomfortable, it states that it considers the second ring to be of architectural value and therefore cannot be demolished.
“This decision left us, Inter and even the mayor dumbfounded, so it’s up to them to see if he can remove this constraint. If this were to succeed, a scenario could be opened up in which the project, which is now sickly, would become healthy again.
“However, we are moving forward like trains on the San Donato hypothesis, a project on which we have worked a lot, with the use of energy and cost-effectiveness.”
