Letter: Pallotta reflects on past, present and future of Stadio della Roma

Roma president Jim Pallotta this week wrote a letter to Corriere dello Sport reflecting on his reaction to the approval this week of Stadio della Roma and his hopes for the future...

“I was by myself when I got the call that it had been approved. I was waiting to watch the Champions League game on my own and it felt like a massive weight off of our shoulders.

“I felt good for a lot of people who have worked really hard on it. I felt good for Kaitlyn Colligan and her commercial team in London and Rome, because she’s spent the last few years building great relationships at a senior level with hundreds of companies who want to be involved in the stadium. The amount of work and travel she has put into this project is insane and I know when the approval came through, she had hundreds of text messages from these companies congratulating Roma and asking to sit down again to begin to finalise their involvement.

“I felt good for Luca Parnasi, who has done a great job with the business park that now looks beautiful.

“I felt good for Mauro Baldissoni, not only because of how much time he has spent on the approval process, which has been an incredible effort, but I felt good that he won’t have to take my calls every day on my way into work giving him shit about the stadium.

“I felt good for Bob Needham and his people back in Boston who have contributed so much effort to turn this into a reality and for our investment group, knowing how much they believed in our vision and the tremendous monetary and qualitative help they provided.

“Above all, I felt good for the Roma fans who have always supported us and believed we could do this. I felt good for the fans because this is their stadium.

“I know that when we first unveiled plans for the stadium, there was an incredible amount of doubt everywhere that we could get this done. ‘Pallotta won’t get this done’, ‘The Americans can’t get a stadium in Rome, no one can…’

“But as much as many people doubted the club, I was always confident it would get approved because I didn’t think there was much rationale to not approve it.

“A capital city needs a stadium like this. For Roma to compete with the very best teams in Europe, we need a stadium. You look around Europe, and the top 10 teams all have their own stadium. For us to consistently compete in the later stages of the Champions League and to compete for trophies, we have to have our own stadium.

"With a stadium and a mixed-use entertainment complex, we can drive up our revenues and invest even more into the players on the pitch to give Roma fans even more chance of seeing their team succeed.

“It will also allow us to invest more in our team off the pitch, who work tirelessly behind the scenes every day.

“From day one at Roma, I knew we needed a new stadium because that is the only way we can really deliver the fan experience that we feel our supporters deserve. CONI do a great job with the Olimpico but there are a lot of limitations – we have to put up structures and then take them down every match.

"With the new stadium and the entertainment complex, the possibilities to do great things for the fans are limitless. We’ve done a fantastic job with hospitality at the Olimpico but I want all fans to be able to have that kind of experience, no matter where they are in the new stadium.

“Even away from football, Rome has been missing out on so many great events that come to a lot of other capital cities but miss out Rome. Over the last three or four years, I have spoken to so many agencies and they’ve told me that their acts or events don’t come to Rome because the facilities aren’t there.

"They’ve told me that Rome is one of the biggest markets in Europe and when we build the new stadium and entertainment complex, the people of Rome, not just football fans, will see a lot more big events come to their city.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us to build the new stadium but what drives me on every day and what excites me the most is the day I walk into the new stadium, walk out onto the pitch and look up and see 50,000+ fans all there to cheer on our team and make life incredibly difficult for our opposition.

“I think that will be one of the most emotional and best days of my life.

"Forza Roma."

Jim Pallotta