AC Milan and Inter Milan passed a major hurdle in owning their own stadium after the city council approved the sale of San Siro to the clubs early Tuesday after a nearly 12-hour overnight debate.
The vote to sell the existing stadium and the surrounding areas was passed 24-20 at about 3 a.m.
The clubs plan to tear down the 99-year-old stadium and jointly build a new 71,500-seat arena.
Milan and Inter released a joint statement calling the vote “a historic and decisive step for the future of the clubs and the city. [It] will lead to the creation of a new stadium meeting the highest international standards — a world-class facility destined to become a new architectural icon for Milan and a symbol of the passion of football fans around the world.”
The San Siro stadium and the surrounding area have been valued at €197 million ($233m), according to Italy’s tax agency.
The sale will have to be finalised before Nov. 10, when the second tier — which was completed 70 years ago on that date — takes on historical significance and would become almost impossible to tear down.
Last week, the Serie A clubs announced agreements with architectural firms Foster + Partners and Manica to design a new stadium, after the city council issued preliminary approval for the sale.
The new venue will be part of an urban regeneration project covering approximately 281,000 square meters (more than 3 million square feet).
The existing San Siro is slated to host the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Olympics in February.
The idea is to have a new stadium ready for when Italy co-hosts the 2032 European Championship with Turkey. The San Siro in its current state is not considered modern enough for UEFA to approve it for hosting tournament matches.
“We believe that we’ve done the right thing,” Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala said.
But an opposition group, the populist 5-Star Movement, denounced the sale as “shameful” and “pure real estate speculation.”
The 5-Star group said the sale would be “a 1.3 billion euro [$1.5B] deal that would tear down the historic Meazza stadium and replace it with offices, shopping malls, luxury hotels and — only lastly — a new stadium,” adding that “real estate speculation in Milan has reached unsustainable levels and now the San Siro is also being sacrificed on the profit altar.”
