Baldissoni: Tor Di Valle project will benefit both Roma and the city

Roma general manager Mauro Baldissoni has hailed Monday’s submission of the final documentation for the Tor di Valle stadium project as another “milestone” for the club.

The project dossier, containing over 3,500 technical project drawings across more than 50,000 pages, was submitted to Rome City Hall and to Lazio Region - an important step towards the realisation of Stadio della Roma.

Speaking at an event on Tuesday, Baldissoni expanded on the detailed reasoning behind the club’s desire to build its own stadium, along with wider benefits the proposed project will bring to the Tor Di Valle region and the city of Rome as a whole.

“Yesterday was another small milestone on a long journey,” Baldissoni said. “We've reached the final hill taking us up to a regional level.

“We could go on for hours about why we want to build the stadium … the only place you can play football in Rome is in a stadium that wasn't designed for football and isn't used solely for football. It's not just sports events that are held there, and we can't decide the agenda because we don't own it.”

Baldissoni went on to expand on the value of the project beyond the obvious advantages to the team.

“Our project is more than just football,” he said. “What we've decided to tackle – in a very ambitious way – is a far-reaching project designed with the city in mind. We're looking to redevelop a quadrant of the city, to revive an area which is the gate to the city for anyone arriving from the airport.

“What is currently an abandoned, totally run-down area was selected after a public report entrusted to a company specialised in the field which looked at 87 proposals with the City Hall's involvement.

“It's a private investment of over €1.6 billion, €500 million of which is for the stadium area alone. There's €400 million worth of urbanisation work ... all useful infrastructure work that the project will give to the city.”

The Giallorossi director paid tribute to stadium designer Dan Meis, buildings architect Daniel Libeskind and Andreas Kipar, who will oversee the park element – which will make up 62 of the 165 hectares used for the project.

In combination, those additions will offer a new social and economic aspect to the city.

“The facility itself will be a modern 52,500-seater expandable to 60,000, which would enable us to host the Champions League final,” Baldissoni added. “From a technical point of view, it will be built on a platform, which will lift it up offering maximum safety and mean not having to dig too deep.

“And it will be designed to host other events besides football games. Architecturally the Curva Sud is designed separately from the rest of the arena so it can be turned into a 15,000-seat theatre for specific events.”

Finally, Baldissoni was keen to stress the huge benefits a new stadium will bring to Roma.

“Along the way we wondered what happened to other clubs who built new stadiums,” he revealed. “Bayern Munich's stadium revenue increased by 57% and they had a 26% increase in attendances.

“Arsenal's revenue shot up by 111% with attendances rising by 57%. Juventus boosted their revenue by 175% and improved average attendance by 49%. Those numbers speak for themselves.

“In the modern game, if a club wants to compete on an international level it needs to be able to manage its own stadium.”