Fiorentina President Rocco Commisso made it clear he would rather tear down the Stadio Artemio Franchi than restructure it.
The 70-year-old purchased the Viola back in June 2019 and has never hidden his desire to transform the club’s home stadium, though his wishes have been hampered the existing rules limiting work on buildings over 30 years old.
A new law introduced earlier this month could make things easier and Commisso is once again making his wishes to change Fiorentina’s home stadium known.
“The Franchi isn’t the Colosseum or the Palazzo Vecchio, I’m asking to tear down a stadium,” Commisso stated after meeting with the Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella.
“Now we have to go to Rome and present the preliminary project for the Stadio Franchi and show what we want to do. That’s what the law was changed for.
“There are systemic problems with this stadium like leaks. On Sunday a piece of wall almost fell on me. It’s an ugly thing to say, my wife didn’t even want to go to the restroom.
“We want to create something beautiful and modern for the city. When fans come to the stadium, they can’t expect to sit there getting rained on with a terrible view of the pitch. Why would they pay for tickets in those conditions?
“I’ve always shown respect to Florence. I wanted to restructure the Stadio Franchi and was not going to request a commercial sector to the new development, but things have changed and I have learned.”
