Inter and AC Milan encouraged to look back to before 1979 for new stadium name

Mayor of Milan Beppe Sala admits the naming rights of the new stadium will be chosen by Inter and AC Milan, but has a suggestion looking to the history of the venue.

The two clubs finally got the all clear from the local council to purchase the land around the current Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, in the San Siro area of the city, for circa €197m.

It will allow them to build a new arena in what is effectively currently the car park, then after that the original stadium can be knocked down.

New stadium in Milan can look to historic name

As with many new football venues, naming rights are an important part of the sponsorship process, something acknowledged by Mayor Sala.

“That is a choice down to the clubs, it’s evident that most European and global stadiums now have sponsorship in the form of naming rights,” said the Mayor during an event.

“I will just express my own thoughts not as Mayor, but as a fan. I never managed to refer to the stadium as the Meazza, with all due respect to the figure of Giuseppe Meazza, so I just called it San Siro.

“That is my experience anyway, I really like San Siro.”

It is worth noting that while many people still refer to the stadium as ‘the San Siro,’ this is the name of the area of the city where it is located.

It was called Stadio San Siro until 1979, when renamed in honour of Giuseppe Meazza, the Italy World Cup winner of 1934 and 1938 who played for both Inter and AC Milan in his career.

Curiously, it was a private venue when first constructed in 1926 by AC Milan, but bought by the local council in 1935, and not shared by Inter until 1947.