Forty months of construction and an investment , including VAT, of €218,621,208 will give Cagliari a new stadium . A Sant'Elia bis , replacing the old one: in the collective imagination, it is already romantically named after Gigi Riva-Rombo di tuono, although in the PEF, the Economic and Financial Plan, the bible of costs and revenues where everything is monetized, the reasons of the heart will hardly find room.
The city is unfamiliar with investments like this . The funds, between the Region and the Municipality, are non-repayable : 50 million from one, 10 million from the other. SFIRS, the Sardinian financial company, 100 percent publicly owned, is also involved, ready to enter the game with a 30 million project bond. Technically, a special-purpose bond. In practice, a debt instrument with which the future NewCo of the stadium, i.e. Cagliari Calcio or whoever it represents, promises to create "a sustainable arena capable of guaranteeing innovation, technology, and Sardinian character."
The new stadium project will span approximately 100,000 square meters, with 5,000 parking spaces and related services. The planned facilities will include a five-star hotel, part of the "premium offering" outlined by Deloitte, the advisor responsible for drafting the economic and financial plan.
The timetable for the construction of the new stadium remains closely tied to the Euro 2032 target, with UEFA demanding precise guarantees that the deadline will be met. Despite the constant delays experienced in recent months, Cagliari president Tommaso Giulini described the project as "almost on the home straight." On the sidelines of the public-private agreement that gave the green light to the 30,000-seat facility, Giulini expressed disappointment over the accumulated delays: "It's a shame we had to wait ten years because of bureaucracy ."
Further details and insights are available in the first part of the investigation by Alessandra Carta and Lorenzo Piras, available today on newsstands and the L'Unione digital app.
