De Laurentiis says Napoli have found 38 hectares for new stadium

Aurelio De Laurentiis has returned to the subject of Napoli's new stadium, and for the first time put a precise figure on the land involved and named a partner with whom a deal is already signed. Speaking to foreign press in Rome, where he was receiving an award, the president said: "On the stadium question, I have a letter of intent signed a month ago with Q8, who have identified 38 hectares at Napoli Est. I've designed a stadium there for 70,000, with 120 sky boxes, restaurants and everything else."

On the model he has in mind, De Laurentiis pointed to Real Madrid's rebuilt Santiago Bernabéu, ruling out an athletics track: "No athletics track — we'll leave that to the athletes. Have you seen Real Madrid's new stadium, with the pitch that drops down and the base that comes out so they can put on concerts without ruining the field?" He linked concerts directly to the running costs of the current stadium: "Every summer, when the council puts on concerts at the Maradona, I have to redo the pitch, and this year they nearly broke the irrigation pipes as well." On what the club pays the council: "It makes me laugh when the council says we pay €900,000 a year. Between one thing and another we get to about €2m a year, and we can only use the stadium on match day. The following day we have to hand it back completely clean."

De Laurentiis flatly rejected the idea of a €200m restyling of the Maradona, with the Region ready to put in €150m and the council another €50m. "That stadium should instead be demolished, reaching an agreement with the heritage authorities. €200m at the Maradona is barely a pat on the cheek. After 22 years playing there, a stadium I've called a dump more than once, I can say quite calmly that €200m won't do much."

€200m at the Maradona is barely a pat on the cheek

The comment came in the same session with foreign press in which the president also defended his backing of head coach Allegri — a sign that, at this point in the season, he is not budging on either front, team or infrastructure.

On timing, De Laurentiis was blunt: "I've said it clearly: I'll carry on playing at their place until I've built the new stadium. It won't take forever, it'll need 24 months. And it will be a stadium entirely financed by me." Once the new ground is ready, he added, the current one would come down: "And then what do you do with it, build housing? There's no parking there and there's the Engineering faculty. When football is being played, the faculty struggles. And yet the mayor was rector of Federico II, Naples' university — he's hardly an unknown figure."

What remains unclear are the practical steps between the letter of intent with Q8 and an actual building site: permits, technical timelines, and negotiations with the heritage authorities over demolishing the Maradona. De Laurentiis talks of 24 months and financing it all himself, but the recent history of the Fuorigrotta stadium — the disputed €900,000 to the council, the back-and-forth over the €200m restyling — suggests the gap between the president's words and the first stone is rarely measured in months.