Stadio Paolo Mazza (formerly Stadio Comunale) is a multi-use stadium in

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...

, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of

SPAL Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly referred to by the acronym SPAL (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. During the 2024–25 season the team played in Serie C, the third tier of the Italian foot ...

. Located in the Rione Giardino, west of Ferrara within the city walls, it was built in the immediate vicinity of the area where the former playground of SPAL, Campo di Piazza d'Armi, stood since 1919. The municipal stadium of Ferrara is the fifth oldest Italian ground still in operation. It was opened in September 1928 as Stadio Comunale; initially, it had a capacity of 4,000. It assumed its current name in February 1982 to honor the former president of the club

Paolo Mazza Paolo Mazza (21 July 1901 – 31 December 1981) was an Italian association football, football manager. He was co-manager of the Italy national football team, Italy national team at the 1962 FIFA World Cup, together with Giovanni Ferrari. Mazza c ...

, who died two months earlier. In concomitance with the access of SPAL to

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, in 1951 it was subjected to a heavy restructuring that brought capacity to 25,000. Between 1960s and 1980s it was renovated again, stabilizing the number of possible spectators to 22,000 until mid-2000s. From 2005 to 2016, capacity was limited to 7,500 due to safety reasons and cost containment. In 2016–17, in conjunction with the club's promotion to

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

and then Serie A, the stadium was restructured again to match the modern needs of comfort and safety. In summer 2018, further remodeling took place to bring capacity from 13,135 to 16,134 seats.

References

External links

* {{coord, 44, 50, 23, N, 11, 36, 27, E, type:landmark_region:IT, display=title SPAL

Paolo Paolo is a masculine given name, the Italian language, Italian form of the name Paul (name), Paul. It may refer to: People Art * Paolo Abbate (1884–1973), Italian-American sculptor * Paolo Alboni (1671–1734), Italian painter * Paolo Anton ...

Sports venues in Emilia-Romagna