On 3 March 1980 the stadium was named in honour of Giuseppe Meazza, the two-time World Cup winner (1934, 1938) who played for Inter and briefly for Milan in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s,[3] and served two stints as Inter's manager.
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).[5] The idea to build a stadium in the same district as the horse racing track belonged to the president of AC Milan at the time, Piero Pirelli. The architects designed a private stadium only for football, without athletics tracks which characterized Italian stadiums built with public funds.[6] The inauguration was on 19 September 1926, when 35,000 spectators saw Inter defeat Milan 6–3. Originally, the ground was home and property of Milan. Finally, in 1947, Inter, who used to play in the Arena Civica downtown,[7] became tenants and the two have shared the ground ever since.
From 1948 to 1955 engineers Armando Ronca and Ferruccio Calzolari developed the project for the second extension of the stadium, which was meant to increase the capacity from 50,000 to 150,000 visitors. Calzolari and Ronca proposed three additional, vertically arranged, rings of spectator rows. Nineteen spiralling ramps – each 200 metres long – gave access to the upper tiers. During construction, the realisation of the highest of the three rings was abandoned and the number of visitors limited to 100,000.[8] Then for security reasons, the capacity was reduced to 60,000 seats and 25,000 standing.
On 2 March 1980 the stadium was named for Giuseppe Meazza (1910–1979), one of the most famous Milanese footballers. For a time, Inter fans called the stadium Stadio Meazza due to Meazza's stronger connections with Inter (14 years as a player, three stints as manager). However, in recent years both Inter and Milan fans have called the stadium simply San Siro.
The last major renovation for the San Siro, which cost $60 million, was in of 1987–1990, for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. It was decided to modernize the stadium by increasing its capacity to 85,000 spectators and building a cover. The Municipality of Milan entrusted the work to the architects Giancarlo Ragazzi and Enrico Hoffer, and to the engineer Leo Finzi. To increase capacity, a third ring was built (only in the two curves and in the west grandstand) which rests on eleven support towers surrounded by helical ramps that allow access to the public. Four of these eleven concrete towers were located at the corners to support a new roof, which has distinctive protruding red girders.
In 1996, a museum was opened inside the stadium charting Milan and Internazionale's history, with historical shirts, cups and trophies, shoes, art objects and souvenirs of all kinds on display to visitors.
Three Milan derby Champions League knockout ties have taken place at the San Siro, in 2003, 2005 and 2023 with Milan winning the first of two ties with the latter being won by Inter Milan.[9] The reaction of Inter's fans to impending defeat in the 2005 match (throwing flares and other objects at Milan players and forcing the match to be abandoned)[10] earned the club a large fine and a four-game ban on spectators attending European fixtures there the following season.[11][12][13]
The stadium was also used for the home leg of three UEFA Cup finals in which Inter was competing (1991, 1994, 1997) when these were played over two legs. It was also used by Juventus for their 'home' leg in 1995 as they decided against playing their biggest matches at their own Stadio delle Alpi at the time.[16][17][18] On each occasion, apart from 1991, the second leg was played at the San Siro and the winners lifted the trophy there. However, the stadium has not yet been selected as the host stadium since the competition changed to a single-match final format in 1997–98.
The San Siro has never hosted a final of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, but was the host stadium for the 1951 Latin Cup, a four-team event won by Milan. The city was also the venue for the 1956 edition of the Latin Cup (also won by Milan), but those matches were played at Arena Civica.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy on 25 March, the Associated Press dubbed the UEFA Champions League match between Bergamo club Atalanta and Spanish club Valencia at the San Siro on 19 February as "Game Zero". The match was the first time Atalanta has progressed to a Champions League round of 16 match, and had an attendance of over 40,000 people – about one third of Bergamo's population. By 24 March, almost 7,000 people in the province of Bergamo had tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 1,000 people had died from the virus—making Bergamo the most hard-hit province in all of Italy during the pandemic.[19]
Potential replacement
Milan and Internazionale announced their intention in June 2019 to build a new stadium to replace the San Siro. The new 60,000 capacity stadium, which would be constructed next to the San Siro, was initially anticipated to cost US$800 million and be ready for the 2022–23 season,[20] although this did not come to pass.
On 26 September 2019, Milan and Internazionale released two potential designs for the new stadium next to the original ground, tentatively named the Nuovo Stadio Milano, designed by Populous and MANICA, respectively.[24][25] On 22 May 2020, Italy's heritage authority raised no objections to demolishing the San Siro.[26] On 21 December 2021, the Populous project was chosen.[27]
On 27 September 2023, Milan chairman Paolo Scaroni announced the club had filed a proposal to build a new 70,000-seater stadium, alongside the club headquarters and museum in the comune of San Donato Milanese, a suburb south of Milan.[28]
The first and only top level rugby union match to be played at San Siro 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.
Edoardo Bennato was the first Italian artist to perform and sell out the stadium in July 1980.[30] In 2007, Laura Pausini became the first female artist to perform at the stadium and also held two consecutive concerts on 4 and 5 June 2016.[31]
Vasco Rossi, is the artist who holds the record for largest number of performances on the stadium, with 29 concerts between 1990 and 2019,[32] followed by Luciano Ligabue with 13 concerts. Vasco Rossi also holds the record for consecutive concerts with six shows between 1 and 12 June 2019.[33][34]
The international artist with the most performances at San Siro is Bruce Springsteen, with seven concerts as of 2024.[35]
The stadium is located in the northwestern part of Milan and can be reached by underground via the dedicated San Siro subway station (at the end of line M5), located just in front of the stadium,[39] or by tram, with line 16 ending right in front of the building. The Lotto subway station (line M1 and line M5) is about 15 minutes walk away from San Siro.
^Almanacco Illustrato del Milan, Panini, Modena (it.)
^The architectural structure of San Siro was shared in Italy with Marassi which, due to being the private home ground of Genoa, also had no athletics track.
