Roma unveil plans to move to new £250m stadium inspired by the Colosseum



Three-time Serie A champion Roma plans to build a new privately financed stadium inspired by the Colosseum on the outskirts of the Italian capital.

Labeled 'Stadio della Roma' for now - until naming rights are awarded - the facility will seat 52,500 spectators and be able to expand to 60,000 for major matches.

Building costs for the stadium itself are estimated at 300 million euros (£250 million) but the overall price, including surrounding infrastructure and transport, will run far higher.

On the move: Roma have unveiled designs of their proposed new Stadio Della Roma stadium

Old and new: The 52,500 capacity stadium has been inspired by the Roman Colosseum

The new stadium will be in the Tor di Valle area in the city's southwest, about halfway between downtown and Fiumicino airport.

Slated to open for the 2016-17 season, the stadium has been a big goal since Roma was purchased by a four-man group of Boston executives, who in 2011 became the first foreign majority owners of a Serie A club.

For years, Roma has shared the Stadio Olimpico with city rival Lazio but that stadium features a running track and poor sightlines for football.

'The Stadio Olimpico has been a great place for us to play but it has clearly had its time,' Roma president James Pallotta said on Wednesday.' (The new stadium) is clearly going to give us a competitive advantage."

Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino sat next to Pallotta at the City Hall presentation and supported the project, although he warned the stadium would not open until the necessary surrounding infrastructure was in place.

'Hopefully we will have an expedited process and a two-year construction plan,' Pallotta said. 'I want to see Francesco (Totti, Roma's 37-year-old captain) be the first person to run out on that pitch'

Intimacy issues: Fans will no longer be separated by an atheltics track as at the Stadio Olimpico

Men in black: Roma coach Rudi Garcia (R) and players Francesco Totti (L) and Danielle de Rossi attend the launch

The stadium is being designed by American architect Dan Meis, who has drawn up the plans for numerous stadiums and arenas in the United States, plus the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

"It's impossible designing a building here without considering the architectural history in Rome," Meis said. "The stadium will have an outer wall that will be a new vision of the Colosseum."

It will be purpose-built for football, the fans seated as close as possible to the pitch and a three-tiered seating design with a sharp inclined.

Keeping fans in mind, there will be a 14,000-seat detached section behind one of the goals for the hard-core "ultra" supporters, replacing the Curva Sud from the Stadio Olimpico.

There will also be luxury boxes, plus commercial areas and training grounds outside the stadium.

Joy: Roma players celebrate after their 2-1 victory over Torino takes them closer to Champions League

Super-sub: Alessandro Florenzi (R) came on to score an injury time winner at the Olimpico Stadium

Financing will come from naming rights, sponsors and priority seating proceeds, while bank loans and equity will finance construction.

If the project becomes reality, Roma will become only the second major Italian club to own its own stadium. Juventus, which is closing in on its third successive title, opened Juventus Stadium in 2011.

"It will be our new home and what I like about this home is the garden in the center, on which we'll need to continue adding pages to Roma's history," Roma coach Rudi Garcia said

Meanwhile, Roma coach Rudi Garcia believes his side took an important step towards booking a Champions League place following their last-gasp 2-1 win over Torino on Tuesday night.



Alessandro Florenzi stepped off the substitutes’ bench to snatch a stoppage-time winner and send the capital club nine points clear of third-placed Napoli.

Attacking instincts: Roma coach Rudi Garcia reaped the rewards for making positive substitutions

First blood: Mattie Destro opened the scoring for Roma - the result leaves them nine points clear of Napoli

Garcia did not hold back in celebrating the goal, which he thinks handed Roma a 'massive' psychological boost in the race for the second automatic Champions League place.



Asked why he was so demonstrative in celebrating the goal, he said: 'Because we got it in stoppage time. This win is massive for us psychologically, that’s why I was so happy.



'We’ll have to wait a bit before we’re there (confirming second place) mathematically. What we can say is that we have a nine-point lead over Napoli - it’s a big lead.'

Garcia was rewarded for making attacking substitutions late on, with Florenzi replacing Belgium midfielder Radja Nainggolan on 84 minutes.



'Torino aren’t a direct rival of ours so I decided to throw on the extra attacking players, even though it might have meant we lost,' he said.



How to get ahead: Former Arsenal forward Gervinho has found greater success in Serie A

Flare up! Roma supporters could soon be watching their team in a new state-of-the-art stadium

'We needed to take a risk to win it. We were very lucky to score through Florenzi after he came off the bench. It just shows that you don’t win with 11 players but with the whole squad.'

Garcia believed his side’s never-say-die attitude was, however, the key to snatching the win.

Roma looked set to be held to a point after Ciro Immobile’s 52nd-minute strike cancelled out Mattia Destro’s opener just before half-time.



'We never stopped trying to play our game right up to the end, even though time was running out,' he said.

