AC Milan and Inter submitted their proposal to buy the San Siro area, including the stadium, earlier this week. The pundit Luca Serafini has called the pursuit ‘a game of dice’.
It had been coming for several months, but Milan and Inter finally presented their proposal to buy the San Siro area and build a new stadium earlier this week. Now, the city council will evaluate the proposal and provide an answer by the summer.
In his latest column for MilanNews, the pundit Luca Serafini spoke about a range of topics, including the stadium pursuit. He highlighted that while the proposal is some sort of step forward, nothing has changed as everything remains highly uncertain.
“Today San Donato, tomorrow San Siro, then San Donato again and now San Siro. A game of dice. Politics and bureaucracy are winning this time too, English and American powers are not enough to uproot certain legacies from the muddy ground.
“This is a country (for decades, let it be clear, regardless of the government) that can squander all the money it wants on missiles, tanks, parks for prostitutes and drug addicts, salaries for parliamentarians, but doesn’t want to spend even a euro on sports facilities.
“Unless, of course, there is a World Cup or a Winter Olympics on the horizon: then plates of lasagna and bricks magically appear for everyone,” he wrote.
If you are interested in reading more about Milan’s costs in San Donato, we would recommend checking out our Substack bonus article on the topic. The situation is not as dire as some fans have made it out to be, let’s put it that way.
The only people pushing for SanSiro rework/purchase are Scaroni, Marotta and Sala. All three politicians. With I’m sure hidden interests. Who knows what they are up to?
You’re buying San Siro, demolishing it leaving a small part of for historical value and yet building another stadium next to it?? How is this cheaper than building your own stadium in San Donato? This is completely idiotic and the only person insane enough for this is Sala who needs to save his own @$$ and who went to Scaroni and Morata with god knows what promises to persuade the clubs.
Elliott/RedBird never entertained SanSiro, so much so that they actually went and bought the land at SanDonato. So how this is being now flipped to SanSiro discussions again is an effing mystery!
SportItalia had a fantastic article by Journalist Letizia who basically called BS on the whole thing (even though he was probably “persuaded” by RedBird to do so) pointing out how ridiculous the SanSiro idea is, not only from the financial standpoint but also from the point of common sense.
I recommend reading it.
So you are saying that Redbird and people around it are making up that it will cost 6 times less for Milan? I am trying to figure out, who can make a company lie about their own ownership so someone like Scaroni could profit on the side? I won’t even tell you what I think of what you wrote, but I’d recommend you don’t believe everything you read. If some clown wrote something, it doesn’t have to be true.
I don’t understand why building the new Giuseppe Meazza at San Siro is “ridiculous.” In London, the new Wembley was erected on the site of the old Wembley; likewise, Spurs’ new stadium was built on the site of its old stadium; and Arsenal’s new stadium next to its old one.
San Siro is a sacred site for both ACM and Inter. They should respect the past by building the new stadium there instead of somewhere far from the center of the city; and fully embrace the future by razing the old Giuseppe Meazza to the ground.
Wouldn’t sharing the land acquisition and stadium construction costs of one common facility instead of each club paying for its own separate stadium work better economically for both ACM and Inter? Why duplicate and waste resources? Milan needs just one new, state-of-the-art stadium.
Man Utd’s plans for a new stadium, released this week, envisage it being built next to Old Trafford, with the current stadium to be demolished.
The important thing, wherever it’s finally decided to build the new stadium, is to move quickly on this project. It has suffered far too much delay.
Donato area will need a lot more investment into missing infrastructure – metro station is missing, restructuring the highway knot etc. That brings out whole lotta different troubles and permits to obtain from different governing bodies and folks living there. And we know how bureaucracy works in Italy. It doesn’t. It can be a lot more costly and could delay everything a lot more then building in San Siro area where all the critical infrastructure is already in place.
Easy.
The nearest Metro to San Donato a kilometer away, I believe. The commuter rail is much closer, but it’s in poor condition and not currently set up to handle large volume crowds on game day. So that’s going to be an expense. The site itself is a field right now. No electricity or plumbing. Pedestrian walk ways and vehicle ramps will need to be built for pedestrians crossing over two highways and cars getting on and off of them. Finally there is the stadium structure itself to be built, plus ancillary structures per the plan. All of this projected at about 1.3bn Euros, which will surely run over by one or two hundred million.
San Siro has none of the above infrastructural problems. The San Siro area is already easily accessible and known. It is serviced by streetcar, the metro and local roads. It has electricity and plumbing. It is closer to the city center. All you need to do is build a new stadium in what is now the parking lot, and then partially tear down the old one. All for a cost that is less than San Donato and divided between two teams. Instead of spending 1.3bn+, Milan will spend 500-600m.
What many fans need to understand,Italy is a completely different environment, completely different mindset and way of thinking, building stadiums in Italy is almost impossible, just look at the scene, many teams in Italy have plans to renovate, and have already submitted plans, but up to now only Fiorentina has been able to start.
With San Donato, by next year construction could start, another thing is honestly a club with Milan’s status needs a stadium of it’s own, with the accompanying ecosystem around it, San Donato gives all this, we should not be sharing anything with Inter, we have access to funds from the US, just look around Europe and see what is happening, every club has its own stadium, no one shares stadiums right now, our history and prestige demands it…
You’re right about most football clubs in Europe not sharing a stadium with another club in the same city; that’s the case, for example, in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Munich, Madrid, and other major European cities, with the exception of Rome.
But if siting, building, and operating a stadium will be far more economical if the facility is shared with another club than if it’s not, I prefer, in ACM’s case, that we share our stadium with Inter and use the money we save to buy better quality players. The ultimate mark of our club’s standing and prestige in world football is not what kind of stadium we have, but how many Scudettos and CL trophies we win. And to do that we need to bring in the best players, as Berlusconi did.
ACM should be challenging Real Madrid for world domination, which, sadly, we no longer do.
Donato area will need a lot more investment into missing infrastructure – metro station is missing, restructuring the highway knot etc. That brings out whole lotta different troubles and permits to obtain from different governing bodies and folks living there. And we know how bureaucracy works in Italy. It doesn’t. It can be a lot more costly and could delay everything a lot more then building in San Siro area where all the critical infrastructure is already in place.