Roma’s plans for new stadium rejected by city council
Roma’s long-delayed plans for a new stadium are even more in limbo after Rome’s municipal council rejected the club's project.
The mostly privately financed €1.6 billion project has been criticized for including €200 million in public funding.
And yesterday, Roma Capitale announced it sent its evaluations to the region’s governing body and its opinion was "not in favour" of the project.
Among the issues the authorities had problems with were the safety of surrounding roads, water pipes, a lack of available parking, and public transport links.
Roma will have to modify all of these before its plans are given the green light.
The Conferenza dei Servizi, a local authorities planning meeting, has been delayed by 30 days, until March 3.
The proposed stadium site in Tor di Valle is about halfway between downtown and Leonardo Da Vinci Airport.
The start of construction has been delayed for years, with approval for the Serie A stadium, training center, and surrounding business and entertainment park slowed at municipal and regional levels.
James Pallotta, Roma’s American president, first presented the stadium plan in March 2014, saying then that it would be ready for the 2016-17 season. However, then-mayor Ignazio Marino acknowledged that that stadium would not open before an extensive amount of transport infrastructure was completed around the area.
With a design inspired by the Colosseum, the stadium is slated to seat 52,500 and be expandable to 60,000 for major matches.
Roma currently shares the 72,000-seat Stadio Olimpico with city rival Lazio.