Former Milan CEO Ivan Gazidis took part in a recent interview with the Business of Sport podcast, during which he discussed the condition of the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, insisting that a lot of the ground is in need of fairly urgent attention.
The former Arsenal executive and MLS deputy commissioner explained that ‘a lot of aspects of the stadium are just outdated now’, particularly in crucial facilities.
Gazidis began by detailing what state he found the club in at the time of his arrival back in 2018.
“The club had been in a mess for quite a while really,” he said. “It had not qualified for Europe in seven years, it had not won the league for 11 years.
“It was taken over by a New York hedge fund when the Chinese owner of AC Milan was unwilling to meet the debt service, the debt he had used to buy the club, so it was really in a crisis point.”
After joining the Rossoneri from Arsenal, the atmosphere in and around San Siro was far from pleasant, which was made evident on matchdays.
“I remember in one of my first games, we were losing 3-0 at home and our entire hardcore fanbase, the Curva Sud, walked out during the game. We were playing with an empty three tiers of San Siro at the end we were trying to score in.”
Gazidis went on to explain that there had been an excessive spending spree prior to his arrival in Milan, which was only going to get worse initially.
“The club was losing about €150m a year, and that was going to have to increase to up to €200m inevitably because of the wage bill.
“They had gone on a big spending spree, so we had a lot of players on big contracts and obviously the team performance was still average, so there were a lot of challenges.
“We didn’t have a commercial sales department. It tended to be local deals, two thirds of the sponsorship deals were local Italian deals, only one third international.”
Then, Gazidis went on to describe the matchday experience at San Siro, noting that a lot of the ground needed updating.
He explained: “We had a stadium, which is incredible and wonderful and I love it as much as anyone else in the world, but really is very decrepit now. There are areas of the stadium that are even closed down due to safety concerns.
“If you go to San Siro, make sure you go to the bathroom before you go to the stadium, especially if you are a woman. The disabled access is pretty poor. There are a lot of aspects of the stadium that are just outdated now.”