Stadio Flaminio once played host to Six Nations rugby (Image: Getty Images, Getty Images)
Italy’s Stadio Flaminio hosted matches for over 10 years – but now lies derelict. The 30,000-seater stadium in Rome is larger than five football grounds.
The venue opened its doors in 1959, ready for the imminent . While it primarily staged football matches, it played host to rugby beginning in 2000, when Italy the Six Nations.
It was the smallest stadium in the competition during its tenure, and it was eventually outgrown when the national team moved their major clashes to the much larger and . Now, 13 years on from when Italian rugby abandoned it in 2012, the ground lies in a state of decay but has a not-so-bleak future.
Its 30,000 seats see Stadio Flaminio eclipse a handful of English top-flight stadiums, the smallest of which is Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium. The South Coast venue only has a capacity of just over 11,000, meaning the former Six Nations structure can hold almost three times as many spectators.
Other stadiums surpassed by the now-abandoned Flaminio are Brentford’s recently built Gtech Community Stadium (17,250), Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park (25,400), Fulham’s Craven Cottage (29,500), and Ipswich Town’s Portman Road (29,600).
It is also just a few hundred seats away from matching the capacity of Champions League-challenging Nottingham Forest’s City Ground (30,450). While the venue primarily hosted Six Nations rugby, Roma and Lazio called it their home during the 1989-1990 Serie A season as their usual ground, the Stadio Olimpico, underwent renovations.
Roma played their home matches in the stadium (Image: N/A)
Away from sports, David Bowie played at the venue in 1987 in front of a 45,000-strong crowd, and both Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen have also performed concerts there.
Despite being renovated in 2008, the Stadio Flaminio has fallen into decay since rugby fixtures and regular concerts left. YouTube videos have since emerged, showing just how overgrown the grass has become over time.
However, in 2021, some hope was instilled that it would soon be returned to its former glory. By December 2024, Lazio president Claudio Lotito presented to the Mayor of Rome a proposal that had been first conceived years earlier.
The proposal outlined plans to develop Stadio Flaminio into a 40,000-50,000-seater stadium for the iconic football club that won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1999.
Lazio currently share their home ground with rivals Roma, but these plans depicted a stadium of their own with a retractable roof and a complete overhaul of the surrounding area.
The city’s mayor responded well to the initial project and expressed his approval, saying: “President Lotito and his team showed us the pre-feasibility study for the renovation of the Flaminio stadium project.
The Stadio Flaminio was home to Italy’s rugby union team (Image: Warren Little, Getty Images)
“A beautiful project, it will have to be examined in detail, but we are happy that it has been announced that the proposal will be formally launched, thus triggering the administrative procedure.
“Now, we will work to examine it in detail. It seems that Lazio has moved from intentions to will to concrete facts. From here to a few hours we expect that what they presented to us, also with video, will become an official request with all the necessary documentation.”
However, reports from Italy suggest that these plans are yet to reach the evaluation process, and Calcio e Finanza allege that a rival group is attempting to turn the stadium into a ‘temple for women’s football’ and could pip Lazio to the development.