A recently tweeted photo by AS Roma CEO Mark Pannes has confirmed that the club is currently working hard on realising a new stadium. The photo shows three men looking at a wall full of stadium photos and was accompanied by the following tweet:
@ Raptor Group World HQ: Jim Pallotta, Dan Meis & @SeanBarror dig in on the stadium design process http://yfrog.com/oe23kjtj
American Mark Pannes was appointed Roma Chief Executive in December 2011 by the club’s new chairman and majority stakeholder Thomas DiBenedetto, who had acquired the club earlier in April 2011. After the take-over DiBenedetto had already stated that his vision of the club includes moving away from the Stadio Olimpico to a brand-new stadium.
A first indication of what was going on behind the scenes was given about a month ago when Roma released a statement that it had hired real-estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield to search for an area in Rome to construct a new stadium. A final decision on the location of a new stadium is expected to be taken in June 2012.
Two of the people in the photo, Jim Pallotta and Sean Barror, are executives of the Raptor Group and its RaptorAccelerator sports division, through which they also have a stake in the club. They also work closely with Roma in improving the club’s business processes and increasing revenues.
Dan Meis, on the other hand, is a well-known architect and apparently hired for the design of the stadium. Meis currently has his own architecture firm, having previously worked for Ellerbe Becket, NBBJ, and Populous. He has been responsible for the design of various American sports venues – most notably Staples Center – and is currently also lead designer for Qatar’s 2022 Sport City Stadium.
[UPDATE] More details have come out on a possible location for the stadium.