Foster + Partners unveils a 71,500-seat stadium to replace Milan's San Siro

The plans were presented at Milan's Castello Sforzesco. According to the Associated Press, the stadium sits on a podium with parking, club shops and a museum underneath, and its frame is a ring of 80 concrete diamonds that carries a double-curved roof and peaks at 60 meters behind each goal. Dezeen reported that the facade is precast and structural and holds up both the seating bowl and the roof. The clubs said the colonnades at the base will be naturally ventilated and the roof will carry solar panels.

Two tiers of seats will wrap the pitch, with the end stands raked at up to 37 degrees, according to the clubs. The stadium is the center of a 281,000-square-meter redevelopment (about 3 million square feet) that will spread onto the old stadium's footprint after demolition. The clubs paid the city €197 million for San Siro and its land, and Paolo Scaroni, AC Milan's president, has put the construction cost at more than €1 billion, AP reported. According to sources cited by ESPN, Generali will pay €650 million ($725 million) across 20 years for the naming rights.

The clubs expect to break ground in 2028 and to host the opening game in the 2031/32 season, ahead of the 2032 European Championship that Italy co-hosts with Turkey. Milano Finanza reported a 2027 start. Both dates depend on approvals the project still needs, and AP noted that Inter president Giuseppe Marotta warned last year that Italian bureaucracy could slow it down. None of Thursday's announcements named a builder. A group of Inter fans unfurled a protest banner at the unveiling.