Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino

Lore & Background

Constructed in the 1930s, and originally known as the Stadio Municipale Benito Mussolini (or colloquially the Stadio Municipale) and later the Stadio Comunale, it was the home of Juventus and Torino until the 1990s, when it was abandoned in favour of the bigger and more modern Stadio delle Alpi. After a sixteen-year stint without Serie A football, the stadium was renovated and renamed the 'Stadio Olimpico' on the occasion of the 2006 Winter Olympics. In a reversal of 1990, both Juventus and Torino moved back to the Olimpico during the demolition of the Stadium and the construction of the Juventus Arena at the same place, with Juventus using it until the end of the 2010–11 season, and Torino retaining it as their home stadium to the present day.

In Their Own Story

November. The sky over Turin is the colour of wet concrete, and the floodlights have just flickered on above the Curva Maratona. A young boy, maybe eight, presses his face against the rail. His grandfather's scarf — faded granata, the letters barely legible — is draped over his shoulders, too long, pooling on the ground. The drums start. Not a song yet, just a heartbeat, a thud-thud-thud that he feels in his sternum before he hears it. Then the chant rises, a low roar that swells and swells until the concrete vibrates under his sneakers. Somewhere in the crowd a flare is lit, and for three seconds the whole curve is bathed in a deep, arterial red that looks like the colour of old blood. The boy's mother squeezes his hand. On the pitch, a Torino midfielder takes a free kick, and the entire stadium — twenty-eight thousand voices — exhales as one. The ball arcs. The net ripples. And for a moment, in that grey and golden instant, the city is not grieving. It is alive. Then the whistle blows, the drums resume, and the melancholy settles back over the stands like snow over the Mole Antonelliana, patient and permanent.

Reader's Guide

The stadium was originally named after Benito Mussolini, and was built to host the Littoriali Games of the fascist year XI, held in 1933 and the World Student Games in the same year. Work began in September 1932. The stadium was inaugurated on 14 May 1933 by the Secretary of the National Fascist Party, Achille Starace, at the beginning of the Littoriali. The first soccer match played in the new stadium was between Juventus and Hungary's Újpest FC (6–2), the return leg of the quarter-finals of the Central European Cup, on 29 June 1933. After the stadium's inauguration it hosted several matches of the 1934 FIFA World Cup. From the late 1950s, until the 1989–90 season, the stadium hosted the home games of both Turin teams. The stadium was then abandoned in favor of the Stadio delle Alpi. It served as the main venue of the Summer Universiade two times in 1959 and 1970, hosted the 1970 Women's World Cup Final. In the 1980s the stadium was renamed 'Vittorio Pozzo'. With the construction of Stadio delle Alpi, the Communale Stadium was used less, only accommodating the Juventus coaching activities (until 2003) and, from 2004, those of Torino. The renovation for the 2006 Winter Olympics cost near 30 million euros. The Olympic Stadium was officially opened on 29 November 2005.

Did You Know?

• The original design stage consisted of an ellipsoid ring whose major perimeter was about 640 metres.
• The playing field measures 70 x 105 metres, surrounded by an athletics track with six lanes.
• The renovation project was based on Barcelona's Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys restoration project.
• The total capacity after renovation is 27,168 seats, all covered and seated.