Sport

San Siro, tender closed: Milan and Inter's project expected by July

There are no alternative proposals to those of Inter and Milan for the regeneration of the San Siro stadium. This was announced by the Municipality of Milan, which will now proceed with a private negotiation with the two clubs.

by Marco Bellinazzo and Sara Monaci

1 May 2025

4' min read

The Milan public tender for the development of the San Siro area closed at midnight between 30 April and 1 May.

There are no alternative proposals to those of Inter and Milan for the regeneration of the San Siro stadium. This was announced by the City of Milan, which will now proceed with a private negotiation with the two clubs.

As stated in a note from the Municipality, the deadline to participate in the public notice for the collection of expressions of interest 'concerning the real estate compendium of the Great Urban Function (Gfu) San Siro, including the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium' has expired and 'no proposal has been received'.

The purpose of the notice was to 'verify the existence of any proposals that would improve on those presented by the clubs F.C. Internazionale Milano and A.C. Milan' on 11 March last, for the regeneration of the San Siro area, the construction of a new stadium, the re-functionalisation of the current facility and the development of a redevelopment scenario.

What happens now

Since no alternative proposals have been received, the work of the Interdepartmental Working Group and the Services Conference will continue in order to define the final acts of the technical evaluation procedure, according to the guidelines indicated by the administration. In the event of a positive outcome of the Services Conference, the contents of the contract outline proposed by the companies will be subject to evaluation and subsequent negotiation.

It was an eagerly awaited date, that of 30 April, because in fact it marks the start without return of the negotiations between the City Council and the Milan and Inter sports clubs, which should result in a real agreement to be signed by the end of July, with an initial industrial and financial plan drawn up by the teams.

The public tender was opened a month ago by the City Council to put to rest the doubts of those who believed that the possibility of a new project - strictly with a sporting vocation - in the San Siro district should be communicated to the market, so as to have possible alternatives to the Milan and Inter Milan proposals.

The plans of Inter and Milan

But for now, the prevailing idea remains that of the two sports clubs: to build a new stadium, to demolish (all or part of) San Siro and to realise a real estate and commercial investment in the surrounding area, while respecting the limits imposed by the Milan City Council, which has demanded a reduction in the volume of the two teams' initial plans dating back to 2019, to guarantee 70,000 seats for the new structure and to increase the green areas (raising them to 50 per cent).

Once the call for bids is closed, the municipality will continue with direct negotiations with the teams, based on the law on stadiums. Inter and Milan should, as they requested in March, buy the areas for 197 million (of which 73 million for the Meazza stadium), a figure set by the Agenzia delle Entrate at the request of the Municipality.

The knots to untie

It is still unclear who will pay for the reclamation and demolition of the San Siro, activities that could cost several tens of millions of euro, and that the teams would like to discount from the price. In the meantime, the sword of Damocles of a file of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office hangs over this affair, for now without suspects and without hypothesis of crime. Under the lens precisely the evaluation of the price that Palazzo Marino asked for and obtained from the Agency at the end of 2024.

Among the questions to be investigated is whether or not there is any fiscal damage to the municipal coffers. But how much would the new stadium be worth to the two Milanese clubs? Real Madrid, with the new Santiago Bernabeu, doubled its revenues from 122 to 248 million euros. In England, Arsenal and Tottenham recorded increases of more than EUR 70 million. In Italy, Juventus, with the Allianz Stadium, saw match day revenues skyrocket from 10 million to 27 million in the first season and then over 50 million.

The expected turnover

For Inter and Milan, with the new 71,500-seat stadium, 13,000 of which are destined for hospitality and corporate offers - the solutions that offer the greatest revenue, equal to 18% of the capacity, in line with the European average (while in the current San Siro the premium seats barely cover 5%) - it will be possible to consistently increase the turnover connected to match days and days when there are no matches.Against a total investment of 1.25 billion, of which 708 million for the construction of the structure, while for the purchase of the area the municipality will collect 197 million (according to the Inland Revenue's expert report), the two clubs could obtain - according to conservative estimates circulated in recent years - additional revenue of 50 to 60 million per year each.

In recent seasons, in fact, Inter and AC Milan have collected between 70 and 80 million annually from the San Siro. Therefore, the two clubs could budget between 130 and 140 million each under stadium revenue (the two clubs have 'lost' a total of at least 600 million in potential revenues since 2019, i.e. from when they activated the procedure for the construction of a new facility to today).

The additional match day revenues would come from tickets and season tickets, food & beverage, parking and merchandising. To these would be added those not strictly related to matches, such as the sale of naming rights, receipts from non-sporting events, such as concerts and congresses, those from club tours and museum visits, and related commercial and catering activities.