AC Milan and Inter unveil 71,000-seat Generali Stadium to replace iconic San Siro

AC Milan and Inter Milan presented detailed proposals for a new shared stadium at Milan’s Castello Sforzesco on Thursday, confirming that the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza — universally known as the San Siro — will be demolished to make way for the 71,000-seat Generali Stadium, named after Italy’s largest insurance firm under an already-secured naming rights deal.

The two clubs, who have shared the San Siro for decades, had originally targeted a 2024 or 2025 completion date for a replacement venue, but public debate and bureaucratic delays forced them to explore alternative options before arriving at the current scheme.

Architectural firms Foster + Partners and Manica, whose combined portfolio includes Wembley Stadium in London, Chase Center in San Francisco, and Lusail Stadium in Qatar, were announced as designers last year. Norman Foster and David Manica both attended Thursday’s briefing to present the plans in person.

“It is always a challenge to design a building that replaces a beloved project,” Manica said. “The way I’m thinking about this project, and the spirit that we began with from the beginning, was: same soul, different building. The most important thing we realised when we designed this project is that the San Siro is a feeling, more than a building. And everything that we needed to do here was to drive that feeling and carry it into the building.”

At the structural core of the design is a striking oval form, its frame composed of 80 large diamond shapes supporting a sweeping double-curved roof. The diamonds are tallest — reaching 60 metres — at each end behind the goals, the areas known in Italian as “the curve”, where the most passionate supporters traditionally gather.

“How do you take the legend of San Siro and how do you build on that?” Foster said. “Perhaps the essence are the fans at the two extreme ends behind the goal. In the new stadium, look at the shape of it — it’s low in the body and it rises up at either end, and that’s the response to the fans.”

The stadium will sit on a raised podium, with space beneath for parking, a museum, and club stores. The diamond-shaped apertures in the frame are designed to offer views into the arena from the outside and panoramic sightlines across the city from within.

Not everyone welcomed the announcement. Before the briefing began, Inter supporters staged a protest in the castle courtyard, unfurling a banner reading “you will never extinguish the lights at San Siro” and chanting “hands off San Siro” — a sign that the planned demolition of one of European football’s most storied grounds remains deeply contentious among a section of the fanbase.