Napoli council backs new stadium at ex-Q8 site, but no project filed yet

Deputy mayor Laura Lieto tells Radio Napoli Centrale the city has no planning objection to a stadium in the former Q8 area, but says nothing formal has landed on the council's desk.

by Rosaria CimminoThursday 24 September, 21:39 CET· 1 hour ago

Lo stadio Diego Armando Maradona di Napoli

Lo stadio Diego Armando Maradona — Foto: Mister No · CC BY 3.0

The Comune has moved first this time. Deputy mayor Laura Lieto, speaking to Radio Napoli Centrale, removed any doubt about the city administration's stance on a new Napoli stadium in the former Q8 area: "As Mayor Manfredi has reiterated, the administration is ready to welcome the project. At the moment we understand nothing has been presented. On our side there is every interest in evaluating proposals that bring benefits to the community."

Asked whether the administration might raise planning obstacles, her answer was blunt: "If a stadium is built, would the administration oppose it? No, the mayor has said so more than once. A stadium is a useful function that would support development of that area and would not conflict with planning rules. I am waiting."

Those words remove any regulatory excuse for those in the city who keep asking whether the project is genuinely viable.

The missing piece is still the concrete one: no project has been formally filed, and there are no top-level meetings between city officials and the club reported as imminent. The political message has landed, but the ball is in Aurelio De Laurentiis's court. Just a month ago he signed a letter of intent with Q8 for a 38-hectare site in Napoli Est, speaking of a 70,000-seat stadium with 120 sky-boxes, fully self-financed.

Lieto added a detail that explains the area's appeal: around 40 hectares of the former Q8 site have already been decontaminated, with planned use combining public parks and sustainable industry. A stadium, she said, would be "a highly attractive function capable of supporting development of the whole district" — in effect, the catalyst to regenerate a stretch of the city left abandoned.

The gap that the fanbase knows well remains, and more than one social media running joke has grown out of it: plenty of public announcements, few papers on the right desks. The council has now done its part, saying yes in advance and without heavy conditions. The implicit request back is just as clear: bring a real project, not another statement into an open microphone. Until that document reaches the council, Thursday's willingness is an open door, not a building site.