The Devil’s new home. Milan chooses San Donato. Super American stadium
Goodbye to San Siro. We are now almost at the point of no return. Milan on Thursday signed the deed for the land in San Donato Milanese, the south-eastern hinterland of Milan, on which the new home of the Devil should be built, a 70,000 seat stadium that president Gerry Cardinale dreams of inaugurating in the 2028 football season -2029, when the Rossoneri club will turn 130 years old. The area of the new facility is called San Francesco and, in fact, was already owned by Milan. It is no coincidence that, from the headquarters in via Aldo Rossi, they let it be known that the passage the day before yesterday is “a technical act already foreseen”. In any case, this is the final step of the preliminary purchase procedure for the land, already owned by SportLifeCity (the company that Milan controls 90%). The technical operation is around a figure of less than 40 million euros. In fact, the 40 million invested by Cardinale’s RedBird for the “New Stadium” project include the expenses for the documentation for the presentation of the urban planning variant application, a variant on which the municipal council of San Donato Milanese has already expressed a favorable opinion.
Full speed ahead, then. Milan, by now, seems to have definitively shelved the idea of building its new stadium, together with Inter, next to the Meazza, because the current San Siro stadium, in particular its second tier, has been restricted by the Superintendence and therefore it cannot be demolished, while the two Milanese football clubs, instead of the Scala del calcio, would have liked to develop a commercial and sports district next to the new facility. Thursday’s deed also seems to be an indirect response to mayor Giuseppe Sala, who last week had invited Milan and Inter to retrace their steps – Inter also plans to build a new stadium outside Milan, in Rozzano – and to take into consideration the idea of renovating the Meazza. But with the purchase of the San Donato area, the Rossoneri seem to be going in a completely different direction from the restyling of San Siro.
Cardinale wants a new stadium and has entrusted the project to Manica, one of the leading architectural firms in the design of new sports facilities, whose main headquarters are in Kansas City, in the United States, where Manica has already designed a series of new stadiums , from Tennessee Stadium to Inter Miami FC Stadium in Lockhar. The Rossoneri, Italian-American president, is aiming for a new ultra-modern facility based on the US model.
Let’s start from the shape of the stadium: two rings, premium seats and hospitality for companies and VIPs, in order to maximize ticket revenues, and sectors also for fans with lower economic possibilities. Large giant screens like in the Stars and Stripes arenas, various types of restaurants and shops inside and outside the stadium, so that fans can stay in the stadium area before and after the matches and make it live for 365 days per year. And, again, two levels of parking for more than three thousand spaces, a hotel, offices, the Milan store, a museum on the history of the club, a square for events and an auditorium. A stadium capable not only of hosting the Devil’s matches, but also concerts and other types of events.
The most complicated problem to untangle concerns mobility in the area around the stadium. Yes, because the new plant would be not far from Milan’s motorways and ring roads, but the access of thousands of cars requires a traffic plan that has yet to be defined. Not only. There is no public transport to get to the new Devil’s House. Or rather, there is the San Donato stop on the M3, the yellow metro line, but to reach the stadium you would need shuttles or other types of transport. It’s not over. Sala has underlined on several occasions that San Donato does not have a sufficient number of traffic police to manage the amount of traffic generated by the arrival of thousands of fans and has already informed the mayor of the hinterland town, Francesco Squeri, that Milan does not is available to lend not even a “cast iron” in San Donato.
he last note concerns Inter, whose leaders, having learned the news of Milan’s deed for the San Donato ground, let it be known that the Nerazzurri club will go ahead with the project for a new stadium in Rozzano, a municipality south of Milan. The pre-emption for the Cabassi group area, not far from the Assago Forum, expires in April and could be renewed.