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MILAN (AP) — Milan’s San Siro stadium is set for a final hurrah.
The opening ceremony for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will likely be the last event of major global significance held at the iconic stadium before it is torn down in the next few years.
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The 99-year-old arena is home to soccer clubs Inter Milan and AC Milan, which completed the purchase of San Siro and the surrounding area from the city in November.
The clubs plan to knock it down and build a new stadium, ready for when Italy co-hosts the 2032 European Championship with Turkey.
San Siro has a capacity of just under 76,000 although that will be reduced to 60,000 for the opening ceremony.
Here’s some things to know about the historic venue:
Technically it’s not San Siro
The stadium was originally named after the San Siro district of Milan where it is located. However, the name was officially changed to Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in 1980, several months after the legendary Milanese soccer player died.
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Meazza, who was also two-time World Cup winner with Italy, spent most of his career at Inter and had a two-year spell at Milan.
He also managed Inter on three separate occasions. It is more common for Inter fans to refer to the stadium as the Meazza, than Milan fans, although most still call it simply San Siro.
The arena is also nicknamed “La Scala del calcio” (La Scala of soccer) after the famous Milanese opera house.
The rise of an icon
The stadium was built in a record time of 13 months, between August 1925 and September 1926 — making it the fifth oldest stadium still in use in Italy.
However, it looked little like it currently does.
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The then president of AC Milan, Piero Pirelli, was a huge fan of English soccer and took inspiration from those stadiums. San Siro originally had four separate stands and was designed purely for soccer, without an athletics track.
It did have links with another sport, however, as it served the needs of the nearby horseracing track. While some of the spaces under the stands were used as dressing rooms, showers and management offices, others functioned as stables, barns and storage…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/san-siro-know-milans-iconic-153450392.html
Author : DANIELLA MATAR
Publish date : 2026-02-05 15:34:00
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