Roma’s plans for a new stadium took a huge step forward on Monday after the club submitted their proposals for the Stadio della Roma to the Rome municipality.
The comprehensive dossier detailing the club’s proposed 52,500-60,000 capacity stadium in the Tor Di Valle area of the city was announced to the public in a press conference including representatives from Roma as well as officials from the city council.
As well as the stadium, the project also encompasses advanced sporting facilities, an entertainment district and a business park which all aims to provide a platform for Roma to challenge alongside the top clubs in Europe.
The club’s president James Pallotta believes that owning their own stadium instead of ground-sharing the Stadio Olimpico with rivals Lazio is key to ensuring the Giallorossi can remain competitive.
“Today represents an historic milestone for the City of Rome and AS Roma,” Pallotta said in his press conference.
“As I said three years ago when I had the honour of becoming president of this club, if we want to compete among the top clubs in Europe we have to own our stadium.
“We want to give the fans and the citizens of Rome the infrastructure they deserve.”
Following the submission of these plans the city council will review the dossier before opening up the process to the Lazio regional government, with the opening of the new stadium projected to be ready for the beginning of the 2017-18 season.
Roma captain Francesco Totti told the club’s official website that the infrastructure will be fitting for the city.
“Roma will have a stadium that will represent the world, as our history deserves,” said Totti.
“It will be a modern day Colosseum, where our fans can enjoy sports and art events making matches just part of the day out.”
The proposals for the new stadium come after Juventus’ success in developing their own new ground when they moved into the Juventus stadium in 2011 and the Bianconeri president Andrea Agnelli also wanted to compliment his rivals on their plans.
“It is an ambitious project that will not only enrich Roma, but Italian football as a whole,” said Agnelli.
“I cannot wait for Juventus to conquer it!”
