ROME (AP) Roma’s American president is starting to lose patience with city officials over long-delayed plans for a new stadium.
Ahead of a meeting between municipal authorities and club officials Friday, James Pallotta issued a statement saying the team expects “a massively positive result” from the encounter.
Pallotta adds “the alternative would be catastrophic for the future of AS Roma, Italian football, the city of Rome, and quite frankly for future business in Italy.”
[ MORE: PST feature on Pallotta ]
The mostly privately financed 1.6 billion euro ($1.7 billion) project received another setback this week when cultural authorities announced plans to declare the proposed stadium site - an abandoned hippodrome - as a site of “particularly important interest.”
The project in Tor di Valle, halfway between downtown and Leonardo Da Vinci Airport, also includes three office towers.