It would be easy to overlook a small Italian side named Frosinone. Located in the Lazio region, just 47 miles south-east of Rome, the Canarini (Canaries) have enjoyed just one season in Serie A throughout their entire history. Perhaps their most famous moment during the 2015/16 campaign was when – after having lost all four of their opening fixtures – Leonardo Blanchard scored a last minute header to earn them a shock 1-1 draw at Juventus stadium.
To put that result into context, Juventus have won every league game at home since then except for one match versus Torino in May 2017, when the derby visitors also came away with a 1-1 draw. The minnows, therefore, did what the likes of Milan, Inter, Roma and Napoli could not and they have again repeated that feat with the opening of their new stadium at the end of September.
With Italian Minister of Sport Luca Lotti present, Frosinone inaugurated their new, club-owned Stadio Benito Stirpe, and it truly was something for them to be proud of. The Serie B side are now one of an exclusive group of four clubs on the peninsula – along with Juventus, Sassuolo and Udinese – to own the rights to their own stadium, with the rest rented from the council.
This means that even the likes of Milan and Inter pay rent to the city for use of the mammoth San Siro, and miss out on the wealth of profits available. To highlight this, the Deloitte Football Money League report for 2017 reveals that three out of four Italian clubs are in the bottom quartile of the featured top 20 clubs for matchday revenue. The only one that isn’t? Juventus.
Whilst the club-owned Allianz stadium saw Juve earn €43.7 million in matchday profits during 2016, whilst at the much higher capacity San Siro, Milan and Inter recouped just €25.9 million and €25.7 million respectively. Deloitte predicts that pair will drop out of the top 20 altogether in 2018 with the new Premier League TV broadcast deals in place. That is surely not good news for Italian football, especially with the cross-city rivals both looking to re-establish themselves on the European stage.
But back to Frosinone. The failings of big clubs in Italy and the recent success of Juventus only serve to highlight just how forward-thinking this Serie B side are. Having made the leap to build their own 16,000 seater home at a cost of €20 million, they are now free from the constraints of local government bureaucracy and eventual profit levels will be uncapped.
The Benito Stirpe – named after the father of Frosinone president Maurizio and built in just 15 months – is equipped with 16 boxes plus nine Sky boxes, modern hospitality and press areas, a restaurant, two bars, a merchandising area and a commercial centre. All of these additions allow the club to maximise their revenue, but perhaps most important of all is the fact that the stadium already meets UEFA regulations.
We have seen already this year that small clubs such as Atalanta have fallen foul of this, as after defying all the odds to reach European competition, the Bergamo-based outfit have been forced to play their Europa League home matches 120 miles away in the Mapei stadium belonging to Sassuolo. Atalanta too, have just purchased the rights to their stadium but the development will take several years to complete.
"This stadium is a jewel, it should be taken and copied throughout Italy, except for the big cities,” sports minister Lotta told the press at the inauguration. “This is the reference model in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and England. If many presidents have not thought about doing what Stirpe did, it's because they preferred to invest in nineteen new players when there was money available instead of thinking about a new home."
Frosinone are currently joint top in the Serie B standings, but the prospect of Europe is still a long way off for them. Still, it is this kind of forward thinking that could see them overtake many others around them, and puts this small club in the modern era when so many of Italy’s giants are lagging behind.
