GdS: How five years of farce have Milan and Inter’s stadium plans ‘back to square one’ | OneFootball

It is five years since AC Milan and Inter launched their project to build a new stadium together in the San Siro area, and now half a decade on everything has come full circle.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, back in 2019 when the project was launched the two clubs looked to 2024 as the finish line. According to their plans, the new San Siro would have been built by the end of 2023 and would have been able to host its first matches in 2024.

The highway initially imagined by the two clubs soon turned into a tunnel: changes to the plans, bureaucratic obstacles, clashes and reconciliations. Everything has happened since 2019, and the end result is that Milan and Inter are ‘back to square one’.

It was 10 July 2019 that the two Milanese clubs filed with the City Council the over 750 pages of the feasibility project for the new stadium that was supposed to replace the current San Siro, and the starting idea remained the same as today.

They stated that the current structure is no longer a structure in step with the times, to increase revenues and align themselves with the big clubs in Europe, Inter and Milan need a modern stadium, capable of transforming the match into an all-encompassing experience.

For this reason, the original master plan promised a revolution: in addition to the stadium, a 65,000 square metre commercial area, another 13,000 for an entertainment area, more offices, hotels and green areas, for a total investment of €1.3bn.

These were numbers that were adjusted almost immediately to meet the demands of citizens and politics: the project was revised in September 2020 and then in October 2021, with substantial changes including the reduction in volumes, from 145,000 to 98,000 square metres of surface on which to build, and the increase in the space intended for greenery.

In the meantime, the Populous design chosen by the clubs at the end of 2021, also changed: the square ‘Cathedral’ full of glass panels, inspired by the Duomo and the Galleria, had become an oval stadium, with a reduced glass amount compared to the initial drafts.

Other requests emerged from the 40 days of public debate, but the picture changed abruptly after the declarations in the autumn of 2022 by Vittorio Sgarbi, then Undersecretary of Culture, on the demolition of San Siro, an essential condition for the project to take off.

“The Meazza cannot be touched and the law says so. It is naturally restricted because the restriction would be automatic after 70 years, it cannot be torn down,” he said. From that moment on, the paths of Milan and Inter seemed to have divided.

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RedBird Capital and Gerry Cardinale accelerated for alternative solutions. San Donato won the race with the areas of Sesto San Giovanni and the Maura (in Milan, not far from the San Siro) and the Rossoneri moved considerably ahead.

They acquired the land in the San Francesco area, started the reclamation work and began the bureaucratic process for the Program Agreement. The project, designed by Manica Architecture, includes a 70,000-seat stadium and a ‘Milan village’ with hotels, restaurants and shops. Total expenditure: approximately €1.3bn.

Inter, before Oaktree took over the club from Steven Zhang and Suning, had turned to the border between Rozzano and Assago. They obtained an extension for the exclusive right of the area owned by the Cabassi family until January 31, 2025, and has entrusted the project and feasibility study to Populous.

The new home would host up to 70,000 spectators and would be surrounded by a large area equipped with facilities, shops and services. Now that Inter and Milan are looking at the San Siro area again, will the two ‘solo’ projects go back into the drawer?