Scaroni explains Milan’s reasons for returning to joint stadium project: “Snakes and ladders” | OneFootball

AC Milan president Paolo Scaroni has shed more light on the intentions regarding the new stadium, including the plans for the project with Inter.

Last week, a critical step forward was made as Milan and Inter finally presented their proposal to buy the San Siro area and build a new stadium earlier this week. Now, the city council will evaluate the proposal and provide an answer by the summer.

The idea is to build a new 71,500 stadium on the parking lot, and partially demolish the current stadium. Some fans will wonder what happened to the San Donato site, which Milan invested €55m on, and there is talk of a potential alternative plan.

Either way, it seems that the club have at least finally made a choice which road to proceed down, while hoping there is not the usual amount of obstacles and red tape to await them.

Scaroni spoke during the ‘Infrastructure and Sport: a wealth for the country’ event organised by PWC in collaboration with Calcio e Finanza, who obtained an interview with him.

“I am a stadium veteran, I have been dealing with it since 2018 and on social media they even call me ‘Stadioni’. This is not the time to create controversy, but I participated in a game of snakes and ladders: on the San Siro project we returned to the initial project, which evidently was not so unlikely.

“There are a series of reasons, which we have already talked about in the recent past, but given that we are faced with an audience that is mainly concerned with business I tell you that among them there is certainly also the financial aspect: that way the numbers add up.

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“Why don’t we renovate it? What’s the point of renovating a facility when two teams play so frequently? Imagine 70,000 people entering the works every three days: it’s a stupidity that I can’t stand, imagine what could have happened.

“When we started the project on San Siro everyone reminded us how wonderful it was, but over time we realised that, even though the games can be seen very well, the needs have changed. And in the new stadium we will see them even better, and there will be many other things too.

“There has been an evolution of thought, even if we are a conservative people. When there is no game, the San Siro area is empty. But a conservative country like ours considers even logical changes an affront.

“In all of this, even in the Council we see renewed support: the mayor is a great supporter of the project. We have made a key step with the Superintendency, and with it many other steps forward. The beauty of Milan and Inter is that they can both count on a full stadium and have similar needs.

“To delve deeper into the topic of premium areas, if there is a city in Italy that can draw from a pool of people and companies that are willing to pay significant amounts, it is Milan. I have seen what happens in many countries, from Europe to the USA.

“In major sporting events, the firm of large lawyers is willing to pay, because it finds clients there. Milan, on a small scale, reproduces the model of New York, London or other metropolises of similar size.

“I believe that, of the 71,000 spectators that we imagine the new structure will have, we will have around 9,000 corporate ones, which we will sell to companies. An activity that today unfortunately is impossible, imagine that we cannot even cook anything, but only ‘heat’, when there are stadiums that instead have breweries inside.

“We have a gigantic road to travel on the new stadium, and we will do it. We sent the Docfap last Tuesday, the Municipality should receive it, start with an assignment procedure and call a first conference of services.

“I hope it happens soon because we have a deadline on the constraint and this would become more complicated. The intention is that we buy the stadium and the areas by the summer, so we are positive.”