Napoli aims to be playing at a brand new stadium in 5 years time. This is the outcome of a meeting between the city’s mayor Luigi de Magistris and club president Aurelio de Laurentiis.
Recently elected Napoli mayor de Laurentiis expressed his commitment in delivering the club a new stadium before the end of his term. Or a complete renovation of Napoli’s current Stadio San Paolo, though for now the preference seems to be to build a new stadium.
A new stadium has been a desire of Napoli fans for many years, as the aged and dilapidated San Paolo hardly meets any of the modern requirements. In the last decade this has lead to parts of the stadium being closed due to a lack of maintenance, and though recent refurbishments have given the stadium some relief, a longer-term solution is still in urgent need.
The mayor and president have now agreed to speed up the process, which should be in an operational stage by the summer. Both men realise that the club has momentum at the moment with its successes in the Seria A and Champions League, and hope this will provide the necessary incentives to set things in motion.
A site has not yet been selected, though de Margritis reckons that realistically only two or three sites in the city will qualify.
That a new stadium is far from a done deal yet, demonstrate the various other southern Italian clubs that are looking to build a new stadium. Cagliari, Catania, and Palermo have all already presented plans, but have so far found themselves stuck in bureaucracy.
© Photo: Mário Menezes