Rocco Commisso, President of Fiorentina, recently gave a speech at the CTO Auditorium of the Careggi hospital in Florence, where he addressed a range of topics. Speaking to FirenzeViola.it, Commisso lamented the lack of revenue generated from the stadium during the Covid-19 pandemic, and highlighted the slow growth of Italy's revenue streams compared to other European nations. He also expressed his frustration at the Italian tendency to treat stadiums as monuments, rather than practical facilities that need updating.
Here are his words:
"During the years of Covid, we had no revenue from the stadium. However, Italy is not growing like England, Spain, and the others in terms of revenue, especially from television. The problem here in Italy, hoping that no one is offended, is that there are too many monuments. They are all beautiful, but they also want to turn the stadium into a monument. I've said it before, certain things need to be redone. It's not like we're still driving a 40-year-old Fiat 500. They didn't let me build the stadium here. Too bad because if I had started when I wanted to, it would almost be finished by now."
Commisso continued:
"The stadium in other countries is used seven days a week, not like here. . In America, a ticket for a game can cost up to 1000 euros, here we don't go beyond 250 euros for season tickets in the curva. A few days ago, Milan announced that they had earned a whopping 9 million from the Champions League match against Tottenham, we reach 8 in a year. How can we compete with certain clubs?"
