San Siro, debate closed: Milan and Inter ready for the new stadium

The appointment is set for tomorrow at noon: the final report on the public debate on the new San Siro stadium will be presented at Palazzo Marino. We will see if the event registers a full house (only journalists will be admitted to the Sala Brigida of the Municipality, but all interested citizens will be able to follow the presentation in live streaming on the Facebook page of the debate), what is certain is that Inter and Milan will play this match together, as has been the case for almost three and a half years now: while Andrea Pillon, coordinator of the debate that began last September 28, will illustrate what emerged from the ten meetings of these forty days, the two clubs will listen positions and instances to then sum up and prepare for the next step.

In other words, having a new ok from the Municipality and getting to the heart of the executive project, scheduled for the beginning of 2023, to then start work on the new plant in 2024. And finally move into the new house, starting from the 2027-2028 season.

the fate of the meazza

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From the summer of 2019 – when the two clubs presented the feasibility study for the new San Siro – many things have changed to today. From the volumes at stake for the redevelopment project of the urban area (progressively reduced more and more) to the shape of the Cathedral designed by the Americans of Populous, first squared and then oval, up to obviously the fate of the Meazza as we know it. Milan, Inter and the Municipality discussed this for a long time (just think that the initial go-ahead from Palazzo Marino had been linked to the need for a part of today’s stadium to remain alive, “re-functionalized”) but calculations and simulations in the end have indicated a single possible path, the one that has always been taken by the two clubs. San Siro will be completely demolished, “otherwise there is the risk that the two clubs will go elsewhere”, as said by the mayor of Milan, Beppe Sala. Vittorio Sgarbi, the new Undersecretary for Culture, recently called everything into question: “The Meazza cannot be touched, the law says so. A decision from the Ministry would be needed to say “pull it down” and it will never arrive”. Words which were followed by those of Sala, put in writing in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: “These statements appear to go beyond the powers of the undersecretary and seem rather destined to fuel confusion and disorientation which harm the correct exercise of public powers in the interest of the community. I therefore appeal to the authority of your role to ask you for clarity on these events”.

roadmap

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What is clear is that Inter and Milan do not intend to go beyond their schedule: in 5 years time they want to play in a modern stadium, owned by them, with a capacity of 65,000 seats. The construction of the entire project (stadium plus urban district) will cost 1.3 billion euros and will be able to guarantee an annual income of around 40 million for each club. There has been no shortage of bureaucratic hitches to date. This is why the closure of tomorrow’s public debate will have to open a new phase, that of acceleration. The opinion of the Municipality and that of Inter and Milan will follow the report on the debate. The junta will approve an initial resolution and “at that point the clubs will have the task, on the one hand of building the executive project and on the other of explaining better how San Siro would be dismantled”, Sala explained recently. In the meantime, in Sesto San Giovanni they will remain at the window, ready to launch themselves on any “second ball” that the match for the new San Siro could offer: Milan and Inter have never hidden it, they will go to play where it will be easier to redo the house it’s faster. Before enjoying the show of his first derby at the Meazza, AC Milan number one Gerry Cardinale had visited the area of ​​the former Falck steelworks. Woe to be found unprepared.