The Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, more commonly called San Siro, is a football stadium in
Milan, Italy. It is the home stadium for two of the three most successful Italian Football League clubs: A.C. Milan and F.C. Internazionale, and one of the most famous football stadiums in the world. Although it has been officially renamed in honour of Giuseppe Meazza, the Inter and
Milan player of the 1930s and 1940s, it is still commonly called San Siro. With the spectators being so close to the pitch, the stands being so steep and with a large roof, it is considered to have one of the best atmospheres of any stadium in the world.
The stadium construction started in 1925 in the Milanese district of San Siro, which gave its original name. The idea to build a stadium in the same district of the horse racing track, belongs to the man who then was the president of A.C. Milan, Piero Pirelli. The architects designed a stadium only for football (there is no athletics track in it). The inauguration was on 19 September 1926, when 35,000 spectators saw Inter defeat Milan 6-3. Originally the ground was home and property of AC Milan, later Internazionale became tenants and the two have shared the ground ever since. Although Giuseppe Meazza played for both Internazionale and AC Milan, he enjoyed more success at Inter and is more favoured by the Inter faithful; as a result, Milan fans favour the term San Siro for the ground.
As well as being used by Milan and Inter, the Italian national side also plays occasional games there and it has also been used for the 2000/01, 1969/1970 and 1964/65 Champions League/European Cup finals. The stadium was also used for UEFA Cup finals when played over home and away legs but has never featured since the competition changed to a single final structure in 1997/98.
The stadium underwent further renovations for the 1990 World Cup with $60m being spent, bringing the stadium up to UEFA 5-star standard. As part of the renovations, the stadium became all seated, with an extra tier being added to 3 sides of the stadium. This entailed the building of 11 concrete towers around the outside of the stadium. Four of these concrete towers located at the corner to support a new roof which has distinctive protruding red girders.
The team's current stadium is the 82,955 seat San Siro, officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza after the former player who represented both Milan and Internazionale. The name San Siro is taken from the district where it's located. The stadium is shared with Inter, the other major football club in Milan. The stadium is well known for its fantastic atmosphere due to the closeness of the stands to the pitch. There is the frequent use of flares by the fans which often cause trouble.
On 19 December 2005, AC Milan vice-president and executive director Adriano Galliani announced that the team is seriously working to move out from San Siro. He said that Milan's new stadium will be largely based on the Veltins-Arena and following the standards of football stadiums in the United States, Germany and Spain. It will likely be a stadium for football purposes only (with no athletics track). The new stadium is supposed to be named after a sponsor.It remains to see if this plan will proceed or if this is just a ploy to force the owners (Comune di Milano) to sell the stadium to Milan for a nominal fee so as to proceed with extensive renovations. Rumours have also surfaced of Inter's intention to also build a new stadium which may also affect this decision.
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