San Siro

History

Construction of the stadium commenced in 1925 in the district of Milan named San Siro, with the new stadium originally named Nuovo Stadio Calcistico San Siro (San Siro New Football Stadium). The idea to build a stadium in the same district as the horse racing track belongs to the man who then was the president of A.C. Milan, Piero Pirelli. The architects designed a private stadium only for football, without the athletics tracks which characterized Italian stadiums built with public funds. The inauguration was on 19 September 1926, when 35,000 spectators saw Inter Milan defeat Milan 6–3. Originally, the ground was home and property of A.C. Milan. Finally, in 1947, Inter, who used to play in the classy Arena Civica downtown, became tenants and the two have shared the ground ever since.

On 2 March 1980 the stadium was named for Giuseppe Meazza (1910–1979), one of the most famous Milanese footballer.

Apart from being used by Milan and Inter, the Italian national team also plays occasional games there. It has also been used for the 1965, 1970, 2001 and 2016 UEFA Champions League finals. The stadium was also used for Inter Milan's UEFA Cup finals when played over home and away legs but has never featured since the competition changed to a single final structure in 1997–98.

The stadium underwent further renovations for the 1990 World Cup with $60 million being spent, bringing the stadium up to UEFA category four standard. As part of the renovations, the stadium became all seated, with an extra tier being added to three sides of the stadium. This entailed the building of 11 concrete towers around the outside of the stadium. Four of these concrete towers were being located at the corners to support a new roof which has distinctive protruding red girders.

In 1996 inside the stadium was opened a museum about A.C. Milan and Internazionale's story with historical shirts, cups and trophies, shoes, art objects and souvenirs of all kinds.

1934 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the biggest venues of the 1934 FIFA World Cup and held three matches.

UEFA Euro 1980

The stadium was one of the four selected to host the matches during the UEFA Euro 1980.

1990 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the venues of the 1990 FIFA World Cup and held six matches. The first was a Group B match between Argentina and Cameroon who stunned Argentina 1 - 0. The other matches involved Germany. All their Group D matches (a 4 - 1 win over Yugoslavia on June 10, a 5 - 1 win over the United Arab Emirates on June 15 and a 1 - 1 draw with Colombia on June 19), their Round of 16 match against the Netherlands winning 2 - 1 on June 24 and their Quarter-finals against Czechoslovakia winning 1 - 0 on July 1.

Boxing

San Siro was the venue for the boxing match between Duilio Loi vs. Carlos Ortiz for the Junior Welterweight title in 1960.

Rugby union

The first and only top level rugby union match was a test match between Italy and New Zealand in November 2009. A crowd of 80,000 watched the event, a record for Italian rugby.

Music events

Besides football, San Siro can be configured to hold many other events, particularly major concerts.

The first concert at the stadium was performed by Bob Marley on 27 June 1980, in front of an all-time Italian record audience of about 120,000 people, which was also a European audience record for a music concert in an enclosed venue at that time. After this event, the second singer to perform at San Siro was Bob Dylan on 24 June 1984. During the 1980s some others famous singers and international music bands performed here: Genesis and Paul Young performed at the stadium on 19 May 1987 during their Invisible Touch Tour, then on 5 June of the same year Duran Duran performed during their Strange Behaviour Tour and on 10 June even David Bowie was at San Siro during the Spider Glass Tour. Bruce Springsteen had previously performed at the stadium on 21 June 1985 during his Born in the U.S.A. Tour.

Michael Jackson also performed on his HIStory World Tour 18 June 1997, in front of a sold-out crowd of 80,000 people.

Transport connections

The stadium is located in the northwestern part of Milan and can be reached by underground via the dedicated San Siro metro station (at the end of the "lilac" line 5), located just in front of the stadium, or by tram, with line 16 ending right in front. The Lotto metro station (line 1, the "red line", and line 5) is about 15 minutes walk away from San Siro.

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