City of Sport
New Sports Facilities

The Sport City designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava

By Emiliano Pretto
february 2009

Without doubt the most spectacular project is the Sport City designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava on the campus of the Tor Vergata University on the southern outskirts of Rome.
The centrepiece of the 320 million euro Sport City is two identical shell-shaped arenas, arranged symmetrically. It will look like two sails that join in the middle creating a large fan. The structure will be lit and visible from the nearby Rome-Naples highway.
One of the pavilions will house a multi-purpose 15,000 seat arena (Palasport); the other will accommodate swimming and diving pools (Palanuoto) with a capacity for 4,000 spectators.
The complex, spread over 53 hectares, will also include four outdoor pools an athletics ground and a park.
Calatrava drew inspiration for the project from Ancient Rome, especially the Circus Maximus, the enormous elliptical outdoor stadium which runs along the base of the Palatine Hill where up to a quarter of a million spectators used to watch chariot races and other entertainments.
The Sport City complex soars within a thousand-metre long oval surrounded by cypress trees, with new buildings for the university rising beyond.
“ This work is a perfect symbiosis between the renovation of the campus and the desire to create something unique,“ Calatrava noted. “I conceived this structure giving the landscape component great thought and following the lessons of ancient Rome.“

The multi-purpose 15,000 seat arena

The Sport City was to have been unveiled in time for the World Swimming Championships which will run from 18 July to 2 August; bureacratic problems mean the complex will now not be available for the event.
The Roma09 Championships will be centred on the Foro Italico sports complex which houses open-air and indoor swimming pools, the home courts of the Italian Open Tennis Tournament and the 82,000-seater Olympic Stadium, home to serie A clubs Roma and Lazio, which hosted the 1960 Summer Olympic Games and the 1990 World Cup Football Final.
New state of the art facilities for tennis and football are under construction or planned in the city. The existing Tennis complex at the Foro Italico is undergoing a major makeover, including the construction of a new centre court. The new buildings will use the same travertine marble as the original Foro, built during the 1930’s under Mussolini, but the new tennis centre will incorporate the latest technology including a retractable roof for the centre court.
Finally, after years of controversy, the way might now be clear for city soccer rivals Roma and Lazio to open their own stadiums. The clubs share the Stadio Olimpico, which is owned by the Italian Olympic Committee, but have long expressed the desire to build their own stadium along the lines of British clubs.
Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno says the time is right: “The Olympic Stadium must go back to being the home of the national team and of athletics,” said Alemanno. “It is only right that Roma and Lazio should each have their own venue.”

The WaterPolo with a capacity for 4,000 spectators

Speculation is rife over the location of the new stadiums, but negotiations have so far been kept top secret. The projects will clearly involve vast sums of money and major business interests will be involved. Whichever locations are eventually chosen environmentalists are expected to oppose the plans.
The Olympic Stadium is a huge arena capable of holding major international events but sadly lacking in additional facilities.
“ Rome needs stadiums which also feature shops, restaurants and a whole range of other amenities,” emphasised Alemanno. “For Roma and Lazio I think we should be able to present the plans for their new stadiums by the end of January.”
Even if everything runs smoothly the projects will clearly take several years to complete. In the meantime football fans in the capital will have to make do with the Olimpico. On Wednesday 27 May the old stadium will stage the European Champion Clubs' Cup final for the fourth time as the UEFA Champions League reaches its climax in the Italian capital. Tickets will go on sale in the spring!