Italian Serie A football club Bologna has set up a new company to oversee the redevelopment of its Stadio Renato Dall’Ara home ground.
The new company’s board will be made up of Bologna chairman Joey Saputo, executive vice-president Claudio Fenucci and director Joe Marsilii. The company will be known as Bologna Stadio SpA.
Bologna first revealed its vision for the redevelopment of the stadium in January 2019 and hopes to begin work on the project in May 2021. The work is expected to take five years to complete.
As part of the plans, the capacity of the Dall’Ara will be reduced from 31,000 to 27,000, with room for expansion to 29,000. The stadium first opened in 1927 and the new-look Dall’Ara will be completely covered by a roof, with the stands located closer to the pitch.
The project was initially estimated to be worth €70m (£58.3m/$75.9m) but is now set to cost around €80m.
The stadium is likely to be unusable for a number of months while it is redeveloped. Michele De Pascale, Mayor the city of Ravenna, has said that discussions have taken place to allow Bologna to to play at the Stadio Bruno Benelli, the 12,000-seat home of Serie C side Ravenna, if the Dall’Ara is unavailable.
The Dall’Ara was a host venue during the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.
Image: Bologna FC
