The new Iacovone stadium in Taranto is designed by the Gau Arena studio (the same as Juventus’ Allianz Stadium), the flagship facility of the twentieth edition of the Mediterranean Games which, with 26 participating countries and 4,000 athletes expected, will be held in Taranto in June 2026. The new stadium is part of a project financing which in the past few hours was deposited with the Municipality of Taranto and was presented on November 15 in a meeting with the president of CONI, Giovanni Malagò, the president of the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games, Davide Tizzano, the governor of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano, and the mayor of Taranto, Rinaldo Melucci. The project, illustrated by Roberto Busso for Gabetti and Antonio Ferrara for Esperia Investor, includes activities throughout the year and not just sports. It covers the area of the current stadium but also adjacent areas, with 3 parking areas, commercial spaces, a congress centre, a sports medicine centre, office and coworking areas and an 80-metre high hotel with an outdoor swimming pool, a panoramic bar and various services, signed by the architect Marco Piva.
Just over 16,000 seats
The stadium – designed according to UEFA 4 international standards – has 16,500 seats on a single ring, with hospitality services, boxes, press and broadcast area in the west grandstand. An internal restaurant is also planned with a view to fruition also dedicated to families. Ferrara, CEO of Esperia Investor, the proponent of the initiative, explained that «it is a project that involves about 85 million euros of investments, a public part, an equity part and a financing part. The public part is 20 million on the stadium, then on the theme of the hotel we have about 11 million contributions ». “We are starting from an urban redevelopment project, our goal is to recover the existing one and put ourselves in a position to have an efficient and modern stadium,” Ferrara argued. For the CEO of the Gabetti group, Roberto Busso (Gabetti is the advisor of the project for the new stadium in Taranto), «the project does not only concern the stadium. A sports facility does not stand for itself alone. The project goes in the direction of an urban mending with lots of greenery. What we followed and carried forward was facilitated by a previous master plan that went in this direction». “It won’t just be a stadium for Sunday but a multi-purpose facility,” explained Busso.
What will the new PalaSport in Brindisi be like?
The new Palazzetto dello Sport in Brindisi, New Arena, presented by Alessandro Bolis of the ICS, will have a capacity of 5,200 seats. It also includes a training ground and an outdoor 3×3, retail and restaurant areas. It has a management forecast, with partners and global sponsors, of 50 years and as a multifunctional structure it foresees 100 sporting events per year and other entertainment-related events also thanks to cutting-edge technology. An investment of 18 million is expected. This too will be project financing but closer to the construction site than the new stadium in Taranto.
Malagò announces minister Abodi’s control room
For the Mediterranean Games, the Sostegni Ter decree approved 150 million euros in March, which however are not yet available. The master plan conceived for the Games is based on a few new plants (in Taranto, in addition to the stadium, also the Olympic swimming pool and the nautical centre) and many renovations and redevelopments. He estimates a need of 280 million and the missing resources (at least another 100 million would be needed) should arrive in several years from the Region. Brindisi and Lecce are also involved in the organization of the event. “We will certainly make a great impression,” said the president of Coni, Malagó. “I think it is essential to have the Government at the table with an involvement also in coordination for what the activities are”, noted Malagó, shortly announcing a control room from the Minister of Sport, Andrea Abodi. «It is a project that concerns a part of the country – said the president of Coni – but in any case it is an international discourse. It is necessary to have clear ideas on the completion of the investments to be made for the success of the Mediterranean Games”.
For the Apulian governor Michele Emiliano, «the challenge of the Taranto 2026 Mediterranean Games is ready. Everything is at the starting line». But, for Emiliano, “we are still, obviously, in the phase of the wedding with dried figs because the first funds have arrived but now we need an overall economic framework that allows us to manage a very important sporting event on behalf of Italy”. For Emiliano, “this idea must also be supported by the Government, as the Government has undertaken to do, and as the Government is doing for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics”. Finally, for Mayor Melucci, «Taranto is the protagonist of a phase of great change and transition. The Mediterranean Games help to tell a different Taranto, the repositioning of a community, a city that opens up to Europe».
