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With a new stadium within its sights, can Roma become the next Juventus?

With a new stadium within its sights, can Roma become the next Juventus?

  • Justin Sherman
It’s been nearly four years since Roma’s American born president, James Pallotta, and the rest of the clubs hierarchy would present their plans for a new stadium complex. Standing atop Capitoline Hill in Rome’s city hall, a project was presented for a "seven-day-a-week hub for shopping, dining, entertainment, work, hospitality and sport" to be built alongside a new 52,500-capacity ground that could be expandable to 60,000, when the occasion deemed it worthy.

Star architect Dan Meis would take the enviable task as its lead designer, equipt with a vision that would see Rome’s modern day gladiators playing in a stadium inspired by the ancient Colosseum itself. They called it the ‘Stadio della Roma’ and the total investment for the project would hover around a cool €1.7 billion, of which around €440 million would be spent on public works (including a metro line extension, a new station and two new bridges over the adjacent Tiber), all in a corner of the city -- around the old Tor Di Valle horse track -- an area that now more resembles Chernobyl than a bustling metropolis.


At first glance, I Giallorossi supporters were salivating at the prospects of the ambitious plan. For far too long they have had to watch their beloved side in the cavernous, run-down and spooky Stadio Olimpico. Roma have not averaged more than 41,000 spectators per game since the 2004-05 season. With a capacity of nearly 71,000, this often leaves the ground looking virtually empty on the television and devoid of any noise. Sightlines are also a chief complaint, as the stadium was built as a multi-sport venue, with its main goal to serve as the track stadium for the 1960 Olympic games. Aesthetics aside, Roma fans are left the most intrigued by what the new ground could mean to their product on the field, and they’re using a very familiar foe as their shining example.

For 26 years Juventus called the ‘Stadio delle Alpi’ home. Much like the Olimpico, the delle Alpi was plagued by a flawed design which created poor visibility. The stands were seemingly a mile away from the pitch separated by a huge race track, while views from the lower tier were even further restricted due to the positioning of advertising hoardings. If that weren’t bad enough, the stadium's location on the outskirts of town made it difficult for many supporters to get to and the shortened roof exposure left people like sitting ducks exposed to all and any bad weather.

As a result, attendance plummeted over time with the average dipping from 47,000 in 97-98 to 25,000 in 2005-06. As bad as that seems, this figure would pale in comparison to the record the club would register for an all-time low crowd for a Coppa Italia match. Against Sampdoria, 237 able bodied would show for a stadium fit for 67,000, broadcast on live TV for all of the world to witness. Many excuses were given (cold weather, lack of interest in the Coppa), but the fact remains that clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester United could generate 237 people in the stands even if there were a breakout of Bubonic plague.

After hitting rock bottom with the
Calciopoli match fixing scandal, the club recognized something drastic needed to be done. So in November of 2008, Juventus announced that they would invest around €120 million to build a new ground, the Juventus Stadium, on the site of the delle Alpi. Unlike the old ground, the god forsaken running track would be removed; instead placing the pitch only 7.5 metres away from the stands. The capacity would be drastically lowered to 41,507, creating a much more intimate atmosphere beneficial for noise production and supply & demand.

As the first top flight Italian club to own their own stadium, they officially opened its doors just in time for the 2011 campaign, with honorary president Giampiero Boniperti at the microphone imploring that "Winning is not important, it is the only thing that counts!” The side evidently took that message to heart, going undefeated in league play that year while also winning every single league title since. In the process, the clubs’s pockets have also grown exponentially, with turnover having grown by €200m since the Juventus Stadium opened five years ago.

This has enabled them to consistently improve the squad, signing the likes of Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala and countless others. A once ravaged brand whose sole existence was brandished with the word “cheater”, has now become one of the models of world football, seemingly leaving the rest of the league looking up in awe.


Public ownership of stadiums is common in Italy but leaves clubs unable to modernise their facilities and make money from mega-stores and restaurants. With Juve as a model now to emulate, Roma’s early prognostications predict that the new venue would see an increase in their own annual stadium-related revenues by at least €50m-60m. After years of delay, Roma and city officials came to an agreement on February 25th, but like any other project in Italy, many will not believe it until they see it.

Their fears would be realized when just a week later, a meeting of the Conferenza dei Servizi, which oversees the granting of permits for public works, deemed that the old stadium design failed to meet the committees standards on environmental grounds despite that not being the proposal that passed the city council in the first place. When pressed, the Conferenza dei Servizi also rejected a request for more time to submit the updated project, having already granted one extension before. Therefore Roma must re-submit their plans, as the construction cannot begin until the approval is granted.


The original date of completion would have seen the eternal city’s most beloved warrior, Francesco Totti, opening the gates and leading his beloved side to a hero's embrace for his final season. Instead, Rome's beleaguered mayor, Virginia Raggi, and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, whose leadership of the city has been plagued by resignations, scandals and party infighting since winning municipal elections last year, must now dig in to ensure that all sides come to an agreement once and for all. Will a new stadium propel Roma to become the next Juventus? It certainly wouldn’t hurt, but when dealing with Italian bureaucracy the unknown may be less painful than the actual fight itself.

Justin Sherman (@jshermofficial)