AS Roma have announced plans to build a new 55,000- 60,000 capacity stadium in the south-west of Rome within the next four years.
The Serie A club, who currently share the publicly-owned Stadio Olympia with city rivals Lazio, want their own ground in order to boost revenue.
It was not clear how much the stadium would cost, but Claudio Fenucci, part of AS Roma’s management team, said:
“For every new stadium the cost of each seat is about 3,000 to 3,500 euros.”
Currently Juventus is the only club in the Italian top flight to own their stadium, although Inter Milan have also announced plans to build their own stadium in Milan.
The use of publicly-owned stadiums in Italy means that Italian clubs are unable to boost their revenues from stadium facilities including restaurants and megastores in the same way as those elsewhere in Europe such as Manchester United and Bayern Munich. With the implementation of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules, Serie A clubs that continue to play in publicly-owned stadiums will be at a huge financial disadvantage compared to everyone else in Europe.
“It’s been a long process but, from the new ownership point of view, we’ve been working on it for the last year,” Roma’s American President James Pallotta said. “It shows our belief in Italy and the Italian economy.”
Roma currently receives less than 20% of its revenues from matchday receipts, a number that will be significantly boosted when the new stadium is completed.
“The fact that a stadium will be built thanks to the efforts of American ownership is a powerful message for the marketing of our city,” Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno said
