Stadio delle Alpi
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| Stadio Delle Alpi | |
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| Location | Turin, Italy  |
| Broke ground | 1988 |
| Opened | 1990 |
| Owner | Juventus F.C. |
| Surface | Grass 105m x 68m |
| Tenants | |
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Torino F.C. (Serie A) |
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| Capacity | |
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The Stadio delle Alpi is a football and athletics stadium in the Italian city of Turin. The name of the ground is a reference to Turin's location close to the Alps. It is the home stadium of Juventus with a small number of Torino F.C. games being held there for the 2006/2007 season. The Stadio delle Alpi was built due to the reduction in size of the Juve's old ground Stadio Comunale, as well as for the 1990 World Cup, in which the stadium hosted (among others) a memorable second round match between Argentina and Brazil, plus a semi-final between Germany and England. The current capacity is 67,229 and the pitch measures 105m x 68m.
[edit] Notes
The delle Alpi has a bad reputation among spectators; crowds complain that the stands are too far from the pitch due to a running track, and that the visibility in some areas is poor. In the lower tiers of seating it is not possible to see all of the pitch. The stadiums location on the outskirts of town hasn't found favour with fans, and the stadium design leaves spectators exposed to the elements. These factors have led to some extremely poor crowd figures. Although Italy is widely regarded as a country 'crazy' about football, Juventus, one of the largest clubs in Italy, have recorded some extraordinary crowd figures:
- In the Coppa Italia home match against Sampdoria in the 2001-2002 season, only 237 spectators showed up.
- In the Coppa Italia home match against Reggiana in 2002-2003, only 399 spectators showed up.
- In another Coppa Italia home match, only 561 spectators showed up.[citation needed]
In 2003 Juventus bought the stadium from Turin council for 25 million euros. In May 2006 work is due to start to reconstruct the ground into a 42,000 capacity arena. this will involve building new stands inside the existing stadium, making Juventus the only major football club in Europe to decrease their capacity during redevelopment. The running track will disappear bringing fans closer to the pitch, and the shape of the stands will change from oval to rectangular. Naming rights will be sold for the ground. This has caused some controversy as fans wished to see the redesigned stadium named after the club's owners Giovanni Agnelli or Gianni Agnelli. Juventus also plan to build conference facilities, a museum, shopping centre, and a club megastore at the site.
With Juventus being relegated due to the 2006 Calciopoli Scandal, the original redevelopment plan has been altered. The new plan is for the capacity of the delle Alpi to be reduced to 50,000. Like the former strategy, the running track is to be removed with views from the stands also being improved.
For the 2006-07 season, Juventus will have a groundshare with Torino F.C. at the Stadio Grande Torino for games expecting a low attendances while both Juventus and Torino will use the delle Alpi for games expecting high attendances.
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