AC Milan announce plans to move to new stadium

AC Milan have announced plans to move from their iconic San Siro home and build a new 70,000-seater stadium in the south of the city.

The San Siro has been Milan’s stadium since 1926, but it has not been modernised since the 1990 World Cup.

They share the ground with city rivals Inter as joint tenants and repeated attempts to modernise it have failed.

In August, a local heritage commission deemed the ground has “cultural interest” so cannot be knocked down, forcing both clubs to look elsewhere.

As well as a stadium, AC Milan also hope to build a club headquarters, hotel, club shop and museum.

“For over four years, we have embarked with conviction on a journey aimed at giving our club one of the best stadiums of the world, which is able to accompany us into a victorious and sustainable future,” said chairman Paolo Scaroni.

“This represents a preliminary step in the evolution of this process but, at the same time, it is further proof of our ownership’s commitment to guaranteeing continuous growth for AC Milan both on and off the pitch.”

The San Siro – or Stadio Giuseppe Meazza to give it the proper title – is known all over the world for its distinctive red girders and spiral towers, but the facilities within the stadium are basic and in dire need of renovation.

However, the cost to renovate the existing stadium would be significant, so Inter and AC Milan have been considering alternative plans for several years.

In 2021 the two clubs announced plans to share a new 60,000-seater stadium on the existing site dubbed ‘The Cathedral’. However, protests, appeals and objections meant the project stalled, with the heritage commission’s announcement last month ending any chance of the existing ground being demolished.

Like AC Milan, Inter are also now considering building their own ground elsewhere, with a site in Assago, a small town to the south of Milan, being assessed.