Pallotta: Stadium in three years

By Football Italia staff

James Pallotta says Roma hope to start playing at their new stadium ‘in three years’ as ‘it’ll be the most widely-used venue in all of southern Europe.’

The Stadio della Roma project has been the subject of much controversy since its conception, but Pallotta is confident the green light will be given soon.

“In three years we hope to have the stadium,” the club’s President told Real Vision.

“I think me coming in was interesting for Roma. I arrived as one of the three passive investors.

“I thought, it’s Roma, it could be fun and we could help grow a global brand for the city of Rome.

“The truth is that I thought football was the worst sport in the history of sports. When we bought the club, they were in serious financial difficulty.

“The previous owners, while doing a good job on the field for a few years, borrowed money from other companies and incurred large amounts of debt.

“Basically, I think Unicredit were the club’s owners, so we had a lot to do to change that right away.

“We don’t get money for infrastructure, we don’t get money for the stadium, so it’s a privately-funded operation.

“It’ll be a 54,000-seater venue, with 270,000 square metres dedicated to entertainment. It’ll be the most widely-used venue in all of southern Europe.

“I hope everything is done by the end of May and we can start building at the end of the year.

“After that, it’ll take 28 months to open.”

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