Stadio Delle Alpi, Juventus, Turin

The Stadio Delle Alpi, Turin, is one of the names in European football that should ignite emotive images of one of Italy's most glamourous clubs, Juventus. I have to say that on my visit to this footballing arena, I was left a little disappointed. I wasn't fully aware of the bad reputation the stadium has amongst the spectators of Italy's "old lady". The stands are positioned too far from the pitch due to a running track and the visibility in certain areas is quite poor. The location on the outskirts of town is detested by the locals and despite transport links being pretty good, journey times on public transport can be a little arduous. In sections of the lower tiers it is not possible to see all the pitch and the stadium design leaves spectators exposed to the elements too. Despite Juventus being regarded as an "elite" European club, some alarming attendances have been recorded with only 237 spectators showing up for the Coppa Italia match with Sampdoria back in the 2001-2002 season. The club bought the stadium from the local council authority in 2003 for an estimated 25 million Euro. The clubs plans were to redevelop the ground, involving building new stands inside the existing stadium, the running track would disappear and the fans brought much closer to the action. The design of the stadium would alter from it's present oval shape to rectangular. This re-construction would actually lower the capacity from the existing 67,229 to 42,000, making Juventus the only leading European side to lower capacity as a result of such a redevelopment. The new arena would incorporate a museum, shopping centre, conference facilities and a club mega-store. Naming rights of the "new" stadium would be sold which is an issue of major controversy for Juventus fans. However the recent Serie A scandal has scuppered these plans and they have been shelved indefinitely as a result of demotion to Serie B. In the meantime Juventus will have a ground-share with Torino F.C. at the Stadio Grande Torino for games expecting a low attendances while both Juventus and Torino will use the delle Alpi for games expecting higher attendances. I wouldn't recommend going all the way to Turin to purposely attend a Juve game but if you're in town, you could maybe catch a game if you've got a few hours to spare.