San Siro

Stadio San Siro, officially named Stadio Guiseppe Meazza, was a project of former AC Milan president Piero Pirelli. In the first two decades of the 20th century, Milan had already occupied various grounds, and by the early 1920s played at a ground at the Viale Lombardia.

Though a perfectly fine ground, it soon turned out to be too small for the club's growing number of fans, and as a result architect Stacchini, also responsible for Milan's central station, was hired to design a complete new arena. GeographicReference

Stadio San Siro was formally inaugurated on 19 September 1926 with a friendly between Milan and Inter (3-6). The ground initially consisted of four separate stands and could hold 35,000 spectators.

San Siro was first owned by AC Milan, but was sold to the city of Milan in 1935, who were soon forced too enlarge the ground due to the club's increasing popularity.

Plans were made for a massive stadium for 150,000 spectators, but these were in the end significantly scaled down. The redeveloped San Siro opened in 1939, and consisted of one fully enclosed tier.

Until 1945, Milan had been the sole occupant of San Siro, but were then joined by Inter, who had before played at the Arena Civica.

San Siro got further expanded in 1955 when a second tier got built on top of the first one, which resulted in a capacity of about 85,000 places.

In the over the over the over the over the following decades, San Siro staged two European cup finals: the first in 1965 between Inter and Benfica (1-0), and the second in 1970 between Feyenoord and Celtic (2-1).

The ground had earlier gotten ignored as a playing venue for the 1968 European Championships, but did get selected for Euro 1980. At the same time it got officially renamed Stadio Guiseppe Meazza, in honour of the ex-player of both Inter and Milan.

Throughout the 1980 European championships, San Siro staged three first round group matches.

Soon after, Italy got awarded the 1990 World Cup, and it became clear that San Siro was in need of a significant upgrade. The option of building a new arena was contemplated, but architects Ragazzi, Hoffer, and Finzi instead chose for an ambitious major renovation plan.

Works included the Building work on a third tier, a roof that would cover all seats, and eleven cylindrical concrete towers around the ground to support the extra tier and roof structure. The resulting capacity was 85,700 seats.

Throughout the World Cup, San Siro was the venue for the opening fixture between Argentina and Cameroon (0-1), three further group matches, a round of 16 match, and the quarter-final between Germany FR and Czechoslovakia (1-0).

The ground got further refurbished in later years, and capacity reduced slightly due to UEFA safety requirements. In 2001, it was the venue for the Champions League final between Bayern München and Valencia (1-1) and in 2016 the final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid (1-1).

Both Milan and Inter have looked at building a new arena elsewhere, having found themselves constrained in their development due to the deteriorated state of the ground and ownership by the city of Milan. Inter was the first to announce plans to build a new club-owned stadium in 2012, but shelved these when Milan revealed concrete plans to build a new arena in the Portello area, instead opting to renovate San Siro. Although, Milan's move fell through in 2015 and future plans of both clubs are at present unclear.

(images of the current San Siro below)

San Siro is situated in the west of Milan at roughly 5 kilometres from Milan's downtown area and more than 7 kilometres from Milan's central railway station.

If arriving by car from the direction of Turin (A4), Genova (A7), or Bologna (Autostrada del Sole), make your way to the western ring road (Tangenziale Ovest) and take exit 3 to the Via Novara. Signs will direct you from the motorway to the ground.

If coming from the direction of Venezia, take the exit towards the Viale Certosa. After the exit signs will guide you to the ground.

San Siro is without difficulty reached by metro due to the recently opened new purple M5 metro line. The nearest stations are San Siro Ippodromo and San Siro Stadio, both a short walk from the ground. Line M5 passes north of Milan's downtown area past Garibaldi station and from most central places a change will be required either at Lotto (red M1 line) or Garibaldi station (green M2 line). It takes a little under 20 minutes to get from Piazza Duomo to the ground.

Alternatively, the ground is reachable with tram 16. Take the tram in the centre of Milan (west of Piazza Duomo) to San Siro Stadio, the last stop on the line. The journey takes about half an hour.

Address: Via dei Piccolomini 5, 20151 Milano

Admission for AC Milan games are sold online through the Milan official website, at the branches of the Banca Popolare di Milano bank, at any of the TicketOne sales outlets, or at the Casa Milan ticket office at the Via Aldo Rossi 8 in the north of the city (closest metro QT8).

Tickets are also available at the ground before the start of the match. Milan tend to only sell out the home matches versus Inter and Juventus. An ID is required in order to buy tickets.

Tickets come in three prices categories. Ticket prices for the cheapest C category start at €20.00 for a seat at the second tier behind the goal, range to €40.00 for the cheapest lower-tier seats at the sides, and range further to €140.00 for a central lower-tier seat at the main stand. Prices for the most expensive Category A games range from €30.00 to €250.00.

Admission for the third tier only go on sale if the rest are sold out. Visitors will find a seating map here.

San Siro houses the combined Milan and Inter museum. It also offers guided venue tours that include access to the dressing rooms, hospitality areas, and press room. The tours last 30 to 40 minutes.

The museum opens seven days a week from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. Tours leave regularly within these hours. There are no or only a few tours on match days and different opening times can apply for the museum.

Bookings are not required, but can be made online through Vivaticket. The tour + museum costs €17.00, or €7.00 for access to the museum only.

Additional information call +39 02 4042432 or email tour@milanosansiro.com.