Tommaso Giulini, president of Italian Serie A football club Cagliari, has hailed the signing of an agreement between the city and Region of Sardinia that is set to allow for the construction of a long-awaited new stadium.
A program agreement for the construction of the stadium has been signed which essentially replaces a similar deal struck in December 2023, albeit with certain changes to the overall project.
The new stadium, designed by Sportium and Manica Architecture, will have an initial capacity of 25,200 and it is hoped it will be a host venue for the 2032 Uefa European Championship, which Italy will stage alongside Turkey.
Cagliari finalised plans for its new stadium in July 2022, with the venue to be built on the site of the old Stadio Sant’Elia. The club has been playing at the temporary Unipol Domus since the 2017-18 season after the Sant’Elia was closed with a view to being demolished and completely rebuilt.
Commenting on the new deal, Mayor of Cagliari Massimo Zedda said: “This is a great opportunity. It will not only be a sports centre that will host, in addition to the Cagliari team, also major events such as, we hope, the 2032 European Championships, but it is above all a great opportunity for urban and social regeneration of the Sant’Elia neighbourhood. Here we are already intervening with a series of improvements that range from public housing to mobility.”
The Region will finance the project with €50m (£41.5m/$51.4m), while the Municipality of Cagliari will take charge of the demolition of the current facility at a cost of €10m. A private entity, to be appointed via a tender process, will bear responsibility for all costs related to the construction of a 126-room hotel and accommodation facilities, which are ancillary to the stadium but a key part of the Economic and Financial Plan (PEF) of the overall project that will be submitted to the Ministry of Economy and Finance for approval.
Zedda added: “The new program agreement refers to the same project signed in December 2023. The only change concerns not the stadium but the areas outside it where the parts originally planned, including a shopping centre, will not be built.”
The changes intend to greenify the area around the new stadium, with Unipol Domus converted into a facility for Cagliari’s junior teams and other spaces introduced for the practice of sports. President of the Sardinia Region, Alessandra Todde, said: “This new project has three main aspects: the sports facility, the green areas and the public housing.
“We are eliminating several residential and commercial buildings to make the project less impactful and we are investing a lot in the green areas that will connect the different areas of the facility. The Region is not only financing the construction of the sports facility, but is also carrying out the enhancement of the entire Sant’Elia neighbourhood.
“It is important to reiterate, and deny those who continue to say so, that the Region is not financing any project that does not concern the sports facility. This is in fact an all-round urban redevelopment project that sees the city of Cagliari as the protagonist. And we have worked, and continue to work, in this direction.”
In a New Year’s address to the club’s fans, Giulini stated: “We are continuing to work with pragmatism and seriousness on the project for the new stadium, a path that is not easy but which at the end of the year saw a new important step that confirms the will of all the parties involved.”
