For months there has been talk of Inter and Milan’s difficulties in finding a solution for the construction of a new stadium, shared or each on their own, in place of the current Giuseppe Meazza or elsewhere. But the question of stadiums does not only take hold in Milan: in Italy building them from scratch or even just renovating them continues to be extremely complicated, for many different reasons, and the case underway in Florence perhaps encapsulates all these difficulties even better than Milan.
The current Fiorentina have been trying to have a new stadium ever since it is owned by the Italian-American investor Rocco Commisso. In recent months, after a journey that began in 2019 in which she had to be content with what she managed to achieve, she found a definitive solution, but now she has to deal with the latest of many problems: moving to another city for at least two years – that is, for the duration of the works – something that has never happened in recent times to a team of its importance.
There has been concrete talk of a new stadium in Florence since, in 2017, the then owner of the Della Valle family presented the first project for a facility that should have been built at the northwestern end of the municipal area, almost in Sesto Fiorentino, in the area occupied by the Mercafir fruit and vegetable market. Above all, the project satisfied the municipality, which would have guaranteed and facilitated all the necessary concessions because it was interested in a redevelopment of that peripheral area.
During the presentation, there was talk of hotels, restaurants and commercial spaces annexed to a 40,000-seat stadium on a total area of 77,000 square meters. There was also talk of dates: work to start in 2019, finish in 2021. But even then the Della Valle’s commitment to Fiorentina seemed to have diminished compared to the past. In fact, they soon began to downsize their investments until they finally sold them in 2019.
A rendering of the project presented in 2017 (ACF Fiorentina)
Like many other North American investors who have arrived in Italian football in recent years, Commisso was attracted by the potential of what, from a purely entrepreneurial point of view, was the only team from one of the most famous and popular tourist cities in the world, moreover willing to an all in all low price: between 160 and 170 million euros, given that in addition to players, the brand and essential corporate structures, he didn’t own anything else.
If on a sporting level the performance of Commisso’s Fiorentina has so far been rather erratic, the company management has been very enterprising in the research and development of new structures. Already in 2019 he bought 25 hectares of land in the municipality of Bagno a Ripoli, where he is now completing what will be the first sports center owned by Fiorentina, which will bring together the offices and training fields of all its teams in the same area.
Fiorentina would have liked to proceed just as quickly with the construction of a new stadium to replace the almost centenary Artemio Franchi, but got stuck in a long series of complications, as has happened and is happening to many other Italian sports clubs.
The initial intentions of the property were to tear down and rebuild a new Frank from the ground up. In doing so, it would have used the so-called “unblock stadiums” rule contained in the “simplification decree” of 2020, which was supposed to simplify the design process for the adaptation works of sports facilities, allowing the provisions on protection to be overcome of cultural heritage, which in Italy often also concern stadiums.
The Marathon grandstand seen from the field (Massimo Paolone/LaPresse)
In the case of Fiorentina, these concessions were considered fundamental because Franchi is bound by Cultural Heritage for the “constructive evidence” he presents. It was in fact designed by Pier Luigi Nervi, an important Italian architect who between the 1920s and 1960s created or collaborated in the construction of major works such as the Pirelli skyscraper in Milan, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris and the Aula Nervi in the Vatican. In the case of Franchi, the original structure of the plant presents some elements considered particularly representative of the architectural style for which Nervi became famous and esteemed: above all the Maratona tower, the roof of the main grandstand (also depicted on Italian passports) and the stairs helicoidal that lead to the stands.
For these reasons, in 2021 the Ministry of Cultural Heritage forbade the complete demolition of the Franchi, indicating the parts of the stadium that needed to be preserved. Given the centrality of these elements, the intervention of the Cultural Heritage collided with Fiorentina’s desire to have a modern stadium, spacious and equipped with all possible services. Accustomed to the ease with which stadiums are demolished and built in the United States, Commisso was rather annoyed and said that for Fiorentina “the Franchi issue was closed”.
Since then, however, the company has not found viable alternatives. The Mercafir area was revived by the municipality, still interested in promoting its redevelopment. However, Fiorentina renounced to participate in the public tender for the assignment of land due to costs deemed too high, the impossibility of completing the work quickly and having “total control” of the work both during the construction phase and afterwards in the management.
Given the lack of valid alternatives in the municipal area, Fiorentina had therefore taken into consideration the hypothesis of restructuring the Franchi taking into account the indications of the Cultural Heritage. A new and definitive renovation project it was finally presented in March 2022, in collaboration with the municipality, and precisely provides for the maintenance of the restricted elements, which will be incorporated into the new structure. Precisely this point, however, is disputed by Nervi’s heirs, who believe that the project does not respect the constraints precisely because of how it will cover – if not hide – the parts indicated as more significant.
The approved project (Municipality of Florence)
Despite this, the planning phase is proceeding and the start of work is approaching. In a certain sense, Fiorentina had to be satisfied with the solution, also because the stadium will remain the property of the municipality and will only be given to it for management. But in this way, in addition to remaining in the urban center of Florence, it will have a significant advantage. The total estimated cost of 450 million euros (150 for the redevelopment of the stadium and the adjacent area, 250 for infrastructure and the tram line, 30 for the construction of new car parks) will in fact be financed with money from the so-called Recovery Fund (the European aid for the revitalization of countries affected by the pandemic) intended for public works of cultural significance.
The first preparatory works should already begin within the year and, as recently confirmed by the mayor of Florence Dario Nardella, from mid-2024 to mid-2026 the Franchi will be unusable. Fiorentina will therefore have to find a stadium that will host them for two seasons, but there are no other suitable facilities in Florence. The only possible solution could be the athletics stadium owned by the Scuola Marescialli e Brigadieri, on the border between Florence and Sesto Fiorentino, which however would need many interventions, and therefore costs to bear: the pitch is too small, there are no changing rooms and has only 7,000 seats, not counting the total absence of services.
If the solution of the Marescialli and Brigadieri School stadium should not be viable, as seems probable, the president of the Tuscany Region has said that he wants to find a stadium at all costs that can keep Fiorentina in Tuscany. We talk above all about the Castellani of Empoli, where, however, work is scheduled for 2024, or possibly the stadiums of Siena, Livorno, Pisa and Arezzo. However, all these facilities would need radical interventions, and none reaches 21,927 seats, i.e. the number of season-ticket holders to which Fiorentina would like to guarantee access, also to limit the loss of revenues in this transitional period.
There is therefore talk of city stadiums in other regions: Modena, Reggio Emilia, La Spezia and Perugia, which already temporarily hosted Fiorentina during the restructuring of the Franchi for the 1990 World Cup. However, these solutions are not very popular, especially the fans, who they will have to follow Fiorentina “away” to every match in the two years until the centenary of the foundation, without counting the risk of delays in the works.
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