Italian Serie A football club Fiorentina has revealed plans for a state-of-the-art new sports complex that will be situated just a few yards away from the team’s Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence.
Fiorentina president Rocco Commisso, speaking alongside local Mayor Francesco Casini, Marco Casamonti of the Archea & Associati design studio and Vincenzo Ceccarelli, Councillor of the Tuscany region, said that the ‘Viola Park’ project will cost more than €75m (£67m/$87m) and be entirely financed by his family.
The complex will feature 10 pitches with undersoil heating, including one with a 1,500-seat stand for spectators and another with a seating capacity of 3,000, split into two stands.
There will also be various other facilities for Fiorentina’s senior men’s team, as well as the youth teams and women’s team, plus offices, multi-purpose event space, swimming pools, a media centre and a small church.
“I came to invest and leave something beautiful to the city of Florence,” Commisso said. “Fans for the first time will have a home that will be the largest in Italy, with 400 people arriving every day to work or train. On some days there will also be 5,000 fans arriving.”
Commisso, who added that ‘Viola Park’ is a working title for the development, said that construction work is expected to begin on January 2, 2021, with the aim of completing the project by Christmas next year.
Mayor Casini said that the project marked the “largest private investment in the history of our area”.
In other news, fellow Serie A club Atalanta has been given permission to host its Uefa Champions League games at its Gewiss Stadium this season following a major upgrade of the Bergamo venue.
In previous years, Atalanta has been forced to play its home games in Europe away from its main stadium at venues such as Sassuolo’s home, Mapei Stadium in Reggio-Emilia, as well as the San Siro in Milan.
Having been given the all-clear by the authorities, the Gewiss Stadium will host Atalanta’s first Champions League group game of the new season on October 27 against Ajax, followed by the visit of Liverpool on November 3 and the arrival of Midtjylland on December 1.
Image: Marco Casamonti & Partners / ACF Fiorentina
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