The renovation of the Stadio Friuli is completed after nearly two years of work. But now, Udinese supporters and residents of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region are launching petitions to prevent the stadium’s historic name from being changed to that of the club’s main financial sponsor.
The renovation of the Friuli has been another of the success stories of Italian football in recent years, following the trend set by Juventus in 2011 with the opening of the club-owned Juventus Stadium and the recent announcements by Milan and Roma that they intend to embark on similar projects. Sassuolo, too, the forward-thinking club from Reggio Emilia, have demonstrated since their arrival from Serie B the advantages for a club of any level owning their own home stadium. (Most stadia in Italy are municipally owned, which presents bureaucratic complications as well as stifles a major potential source of revenue for the home team.) Following these renovations the Friuli too is now club-owned.
The stadium was first built in 1976, when Udine had no team in top-flight football, as a means of investing in the town’s sporting culture and aim for a higher profile in the region. Upon completion, it had no official name, but was referred to as the Stadio dei Rizzi after the neighborhood of Udine it was located in.
Also in 1976, two magnitude 6 earthquakes devastated the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, the first in May and the second consisting of three equally powerful aftershocks in September. An area of 5,500 square kilometers was effected, 18,000 homes destroyed and a further 75,000 damaged. 600,000 citizens had their lives affected by the disaster – 989 lost them.
The Rizzi neighborhood was left relatively unscathed and the inaugural match of the new stadium was able to go ahead as scheduled – though small tremors were felt around the ground during the game. A proposal was soon put forth to officially name the new ground “Stadio Friuli” as a statement of pride in the region and most of all, a tribute to the lives lost. The naming was made official in 1978.
Now, however, despite a bill passed by the town council in 2011 affirming the importance of the stadium’s name for the community and forbidding it to ever be changed, a change is on the horizon. The Dacia automobile company, main technical sponsor of Udinese Calcio and a major source of funding for the new renovations, wants to rename the stadium Dacia Arena.
Udinese fans are outraged, and have launched petitions to protest the name change. A statement released earlier this week by the organized ultras of the Curva Nord reads, in part: “In these last few years we’ve seen and been subjected to everything, from parts of our jerseys dedicated to advertising other teams in other sports (including the not-very-beloved Napoli) to purely administrative symbols (including those of not-very-beloved Trieste.) The stoic Friulian people have always accepted these “innovations,” meanwhile the ultras have always tried to show that this stuff is worth more than just a billboard to be used by companies….it was our great tragedy that created this name, just like how the piazza in front of the stadium is called the “Argentina” in honor of the Friulians who emigrated to South America out of hunger, but always carrying Friuli in their hearts…to expect the name to remain Stadio Friuli isn’t some crazy ultra thing but just a matter of respect for the 989 dead, victims of that bastard Fate.”
It has become a flash point in local politics, with officials from all parties taking sides and arguing their case. Centre-right PD (Partita democratica) representatives have urged opponents of the change to “not exploit this shared and painful memory of the 1976 earthquake to advance their own political ends” and emphasized the economic benefits for the region that may come from the greater visibility of the Dacia brand name. Revenue from the branding would be between 50 and 100 thousand euros a year, intended to be invested in the development of sports infrastructure in the surrounding region. The PD has also allowed for a concession, in that the eventual full name of the rebranded stadium could be “Dacia Arena Friuli”, but for opponents of the change, this is a paltry and even insulting half-measure.
The left-wing Movimento Cinque Stelle (5 Stars Movement) has sided with the Udinese ultras, and holds that the projected economic advantage is far too small to justify a symbolic change of such importance.
Centre-right party Forza Italia has also allied with the M5S in opposing the change. Regional party leader Riccardo Riccardi appealed to the governor of the region: “I don’t believe that the president and regional council can just stand and watch this issue which touches our hearts, not only those of Udinese fans but of all Friulani who feel an attachment to this stadium and what it represents, a testimony to a land which knows how to be the protagonist of the most difficult stories in life.”
“None of us live on Mars,” added Riccardi. “We’re all well aware that we don’t live in the 70s anymore, when the Stadio Friuli was built, but that we live in an era in which the dynamics of marketing and business logistics rule over sports. But that is no justification for erasing a part of the history of our homeland. All of this, in our opinion, is worth more than fifty thousand euros.”
Further meetings and deliberation, possibly arriving at a final decision, are expected on Monday.
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