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In recent weeks there have been some important developments regarding the situation regarding the Giuseppe Meazza stadium in Milan. Amid public debates, historical constraints on the structure and events that the existing stadium is committed to hosting in the coming years, Inter and Milan have moved to concretely evaluate the construction of two new stadiums, one each, on land in the municipalities around Milan. The two teams therefore seem to have definitively given up on the possibility of building a new Meazza together in the same area where the current one is located, in the San Siro district.
Between June and July, Milan bought the company that owns a building area in the municipality of San Donato Milanese (southern suburb of Milan) on which it is proceeding with its preliminary assessments. Recently the managing director Giorgio Furlani confirmed the intentions of the club saying: «We want to have our own plant». Inter have done something similar in recent weeks, obtaining “an exclusive right” until 30 April 2024 on land in the municipality of Rozzano adjacent to the Mediolanum Forum in Assago, the building used by the Olimpia Milano basketball team .
These choices, different from the initial projects, were influenced above all by the constraint of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape to which the second ring of San Siro will be subjected, i.e. the part of the stadium built in the 1950s. It is a historical constraint that enters into force 70 years after the construction of relevant and significant works. In the case of the Meazza, the 70 required by law would still be two years away, but the municipality of Milan recently confirmed that it will be applied, thus making the demolition of the plant even more problematic, if not impossible.
Meanwhile, the city of Milan has nominated the current Meazza to host the Champions League final in 2026 or 2027 (in both cases between May and June). If it is assigned, as seems probable, the event will be added to the opening ceremony of the 2026 Milan and Cortina Winter Olympics for which the Meazza was already indicated as the venue years ago in the candidacy phase.
All of this, from the constraint to the events it will host in the coming years, has contributed to destroying all the options that the teams and the municipality of Milan had considered for the future of San Siro. The Meazza is a 97-year-old stadium that would need structural interventions – and precisely because of its age – difficult to build – to align itself with the international standards required by both professional sport and the entertainment sector.
If the constraint excludes the possibility of demolition, the events foreseen between now and 2026 or 2027 will in fact not allow any type of substantial restructuring intervention. The latter eventuality mainly affects the municipality. If Inter and Milan were to go ahead with their plans definitively, the municipality could find itself managing a large, mostly unused stadium that costs between 5 and 10 million euros just for extraordinary maintenance, while the municipal budget for sport is around 7 million euros a year, as he told a Republic the municipal councilor for Sport Martina Riva. Not to mention that for the use of the San Siro, Inter and Milan guarantee an annual rent of 10 million and 300 thousand euros.
A restructuring would at least serve the municipality to lower management costs in the absence of the two teams: so far we have mainly talked about the removal of the third tier, a section of the stadium that is used by the two teams only in the event of extraordinary turnout. And without frequent use by football, the side events that the stadium still hosts would be insufficient to amortize the costs. In order to be able to organize more concerts and other sporting events, the current Meazza would have to be at least reconverted and made fit for purpose.
For Beppe Sala, mayor of Milan, the constraint will have “serious consequences for the future of the stadium and for its economic sustainability”. The group leader of Europa Verde in the city council, Carlo Monguzzi, instead welcomed the news about the restriction and wrote on Instagram: «Thanks to the restriction on the Meazza we will avoid the emission of 210,000 tons of CO2 for its abatement and we will save 45,000 square meters of green from the concrete, because the new stadium will not be built». Monguzzi later denounced having received insults and threats online.
– Read also: The massacre at the PAC in Milan, thirty years ago
2023-07-31 14:46:50
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