The Rise of San Siro : ” Temple of Soccer “

The Giuseppe Meazza Stadium commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of the AC Milan and Internazionale. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums in Europe, and the largest in Italy.
The San Siro is a UEFA category fourstadium. It hosted six games at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and four European Cup finals, in 196519702001 and 2016.

On 3 March 1980, the stadium was named in honour of Giuseppe Meazza, the two-time World Cup winner (19341938) who played for Inter and briefly for Milan in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

History

In 1925, President of A.C. Milan Piero Pirelli called for the construction of a soccer stadium near the Hippodrome for Trotting Races . The structure, as designed by the engineer Alberto Cugini and the architect Ulisse Stacchini, is made up of four back straight bleachers, one of which is partially covered, and can contain up to 35,000 spectators.

After buying the stadium, the City of Milan started a first round of renovations in 1935 that led to the construction of four connecting curves between the bleachers, with an increase in the capacity of the two front ones. The renovations, supervised by the engineer Bertera and architect Perlasca, provided the people of Milan a stadium with 55.000 seats.

The Stadium was built to host mainly Milan’s matches of A.C. Milan, but in 1947-1948 it became the home of Inter as well.

In 1990, on the occasion of the World Cup, the City of Milan decided to work on a deep renovation of the stadium, discarding the idea of building a new structure.

They built eleven new cylindrical towers in reinforced concrete that contained a number of facilities and allowed access to the bleachers. Four of these towers still supply support to the roofing system.

The color of the seats marks the sections of the stadium: red and orange for the back straight bleachers; green and blue for the curves. The 85.700 seats are covered by polycarbonate slabs for spectator comfort.

The game field remains uncovered, allowing the matches to take place with natural light and weather conditions. A new lighting system has been installed, as well as a new heating system for the grass keeping its temperature constantly controlled, preventing the ground from freezing.

On June 8th, the stadium hosted the opening of the World Cup 1990: Argentina – Camerun. The “Temple of Soccer” is now the home of thousands of fans, hosting an average of two matches a week during the sport season.

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Important International Matches

1934 Fifa World Cup

  • Germany 2 – 1 Sweden
  • Italia 1 – 0 Sweden

Uefa Euro 1980

  • Czechoslovakia 0 – 1 West Germany

 

1934 World Cup Final. Rome, Italy. Italy 2 v Czechoslovakia 1. 10th June, 1934. The victorious Italian team carry their coach Vittorio Pozzo as they celebrate an historic victory.

Rugby union

The first and only top level rugby union match to be played at San Siro was a test match between Italy and New Zealand in November 2009. A crowd of 80,000 watched the event, a record for Italian rugby.

Italia 6 – 20 New Zealand

Boxing

San Siro was the venue for the boxing match between Duilio Loi vs. Carlos Ortiz for the Junior Welterweight title in 1960.

Transport Connections

The stadium is located in the northwestern part of Milan and can be reached by underground via the dedicated San Siro metro station (at the end of the “lilac” line 5), located just in front of the stadium, or by tram, with line 16 ending right in front. The Lotto metro station (line 1, the “red line”, and line 5) is about 15 minutes walk away from San Siro.

In the words of Chairman

In more simple words the situation was explained in today’s interview with AC Milan chairman Paolo Scaroni. I would like a new stadium together with Inter: it’s a way to halve investments and maintenance while doubling the commercial value.

With more games every week between the league and cups, the visibility would be crazy. The stadium increases revenue by €40-50 million a year and a great sponsor could give it the name, we would have a queue of international companies interested in such investment. And we will get a lot more than what they do in Turin with Allianz . Scaroni boasts