Roma Board Abandons Stadio della Roma Plans at Tor di Valle

The Stadio della Roma, which has been in the works for nearly a decade now, has dealt with a litany of obstacles over the years, with everything from the height of the stadium and the adjoining towers to the nesting areas of local frogs delaying the start of construction on Roma's new stadium. While they managed to clear those hurdles, constant political gamesmanship at nearly every bureaucratic level has rendered the project at Tor di Valle practically impossible.

And moments ago, the club itself struck the killing blow to the Stadio della Roma. Following a meeting of the club's Board of Directors—the PDF from which can be found on the Italian version of Roma's official site—Roma, in no uncertain terms, put an end to the Stadio della Roma project as currently envisioned.

From the official document and translated by our friends at Google:

The ownership of AS Roma intends to invest, in order to be competitive, in a winning team that can play in a new modern and efficient stadium.

The Board of Directors, which met today, based on the in-depth analysis conducted by the advisors financial, notary and lawyers of primary standing, as well as in the light of the latest communications from Roma Capitale, has verified that the conditions to confirm the interest in using the stadium to be built no longer exist as part of the current real estate project relating to the Tor Di Valle area, the latter project having become impossible to execute.

The Board of Directors - after examining the analyzes carried out by the advisors on the matter under the financial, economic, legal and factual conditions of the project and of the relative proponent - acknowledged that these conditions prevent further progress.

The Board of Directors also noted that the pandemic has also radically changed the international economic scenario, including prospects financial statements of the current stadium project. This decision was made by the Board of Directors in the interest of the Company, recalling that the same would be the mere user of the system, and it was communicated to the Administration of Rome Capital today.

Having said this, the Company confirms its intention to strengthen dialogue with the Administration of Rome Capital, the Region and all the relevant institutions, the Universities of Rome and the sports institutions, to create a green, sustainable stadium and integrated with the territory, constructively discussing all the hypotheses, including Tor di Valle, and evaluating all the possible initiatives to protect the interests of the Company, of all its shareholders and its fans

Now, none of this is to say that Roma will be content with continuing life in the Stadio Olimpio—and indeed a new stadium remains a critical component of the Friedkins plans for Roma—but the nearly decade-long battle between the club, the various mayors of Rome, and councils and planning commissions too numerous to list have effectively killed the Stadio della Roma, to the extent it even existed outside of the architect's imagination.

Where we go from here is anyone's guess, but at this point, it seems like the Friedkins would prefer to start from square one, possibly with a new location and new design in hand.

Stop me if you've heard this one before, but...stay tuned.