Sala, stadium: “Milan, Inter and the future of San Siro”

Encompassing several years (of back and forth) in less than five minutes is not a simple undertaking, but Beppe Sala has evidently felt the need – not that it is the first time – to make a point on the stadium situation. Reflections that the mayor of Milan delivered today to his podcast “Buongiorno Milano”.

Project

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The premise is that “this story begins with the change of ownership of Milan and Inter. For the new owners, the question of budgets has become more stringent and, in their minds, the question of a new stadium means two fundamental things: the possibility of increasing revenues and the awareness that a football club can be sold more easily if this club owns a stadium, or if it has at least a project approved by the Municipality to build a new one.When Inter and Milan came to me to start talking about stadium, I immediately proposed to them to start a major renovation of the San Siro, being absolutely willing to give them ownership of the stadium. However, I have to acknowledge the teams who, very clearly, told me that it was an option that they they could not even consider.Then it is undeniable that the route took a lot of time both for the administrative procedure and for the technical checks because at the beginning the teams asked for indexes vol metrics (i.e. the possibility of building hotels, offices, commercial structures) that are not compatible with the rules of the Municipality. Of course, to be honest, we can’t ignore the fact that a part of the City Council, including my political part, never really wanted the new stadium, especially if it meant sacrificing the old stadium. Once the question was that San Siro shouldn’t be demolished, then there were constant requests to the teams to improve the project, from the distance of the houses to the capacity, the result of public debate and municipal councils, and so on. And this too is a historical truth.”

New option

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The mayor continues, going into the specifics of the two clubs: “How true it is that, to date, the teams have not formally communicated to us the renunciation of the project they have been working on together in the last period. The procedure is still in progress and the teams must respond formally. In the meantime, however, Milan has taken a precise step. Although informally, they have communicated to us that they are evaluating a new option, located in the area called La Maura. This new location hypothesis means two things : going to build on another private and non-public land, and disengaging from Inter. I won’t comment on this second thing, I’ll just report it. The property has informed me that it needs three weeks to study a master plan that defines the intervention and which, from what I understand to date, would only concern the stadium and Casa Milan, not other buildings. Inter? A hypothesis of location outside Milan is leaked, but I have no confirmation in this regard. I wish it were clear is that no one sends them away from San Siro, but I can’t take their place in the decisions that concern them.”

I commit

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Sala concludes with this: “Finally, I believe that this long and still undefined story has only one great certainty. The two teams no longer want to stay at the San Siro and no one can force them to renovate it. For me, therefore, it is my duty to commit myself to the end so that an alternative solution can be found in the Municipality of Milan. The glorious times of Berlusconi and Moratti are over, even if we fans are a little nostalgic for them. Inter and Milan have loss-making balance sheets and are not philanthropic bodies: we must reach an solution that protects their interests and, at the same time, those of the city”.