The demolition of the Old Sant'Elia will be completed by July 2027, immediately after the start of work on the construction of the new stadium .
Massimo Zedda is setting the pace, the day after the City Council published the international tender. The mayor calls yesterday's step "fundamental," "because it marks the next steps," which are the tender deadline (applications must be submitted within 60 days), the awarding of the contract, and the start of construction, following the demolition of the old stadium, which, the mayor assures, will take place "in the first half of 2027."
The construction of the temporary stadium was crucial, Zedda recalls, as it will facilitate and speed up construction of the new Sant'Elia: "We won't have any difficulty, as happens elsewhere, making the work compatible with the championship underway, nor will we have to look for another stadium to host Cagliari's matches."
Cagliari Calcio is the clear favorite to win the contract: "At the moment we have no evidence of other companies interested in competing, we'll see as the tender process progresses."
Zedda then emphasizes the reason why public spending is higher than that required to build other stadiums : "We've increased the capacity to 30,000 seats to have a world-class stadium and eliminated the commercial spaces tied to large-scale distribution. This is why the financial effort is far greater than that of other locations . First of all, because we are an island with 1.5 million inhabitants and we are increasing the stadium to 30,000 seats. In Turin, the Juventus Stadium seats 41,000 in a place surrounded, between the Piedmont Region and its surroundings, by 20 million inhabitants. So it's clear that the financial effort for us has been far greater than that of other locations."
Then there is the question of Euro 2032 : "The sooner we start work, the better, because there is also the question of UEFA, but let's remember that the decision is up to them and let's take into account that the competition is split between two states, so the number of stadiums to be identified is smaller."
(Unioneonline)