Improving the Livability of Contemporary Cities The Role of Sports Infrastructure in Urban Regeneration

‘’ In line with the global guidelines established by the United Nations with the identification of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by member states in 2015, urban regeneration is configured not only as an urban planning strategy, which therefore mainly concerns the physical part of the city, but also as a project of social inclusion and local economic development, aimed at restoring prospects of equity, urban-ecological quality and efficiency to the government of the city and contemporary territories. ‘’ (L. Ricci, 2020) The continuous phenomenon of urbanization of contemporary cities, the increasing lack of economic and environmental resources and the need to increasingly deal with the needs of society, raises the problem of preparing new methods and tools to improve life in consolidated urban fabrics. ‘’ Strategies of reuse and refunctionalization, replacement and stratification, recovery, redevelopment and enhancement, densification and urban acupuncture are included within an integrated vision of regeneration contributing to the evolution of the city in a dynamic way and with the times that respond to the rapid evolution of the city. ‘’ (Cangelli, 2015) Therefore, for the purpose of improving life within contemporary cities, sport represents an important element: in this perspective, numerous sociological studies (Tosi S. (2019), Russo, P. (2021), Di Paola L. (2021)), demonstrate the importance of sport in society, considering it a tool to better understand human activity. In fact, "if sport is more than just a recreational activity, it is because it works on the ways in which social facts are structured - in its micro, meso and macro level components - and is in turn conditioned by them" (Bifulco & Tirino, 2019, p. 10). It is therefore not 'just a game', but a product of society capable of influencing the identity, social, political, conflictual and commercial dynamics of human and city life. Not surprisingly, based on what emerged at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2009, about 2% of the world's GDP is generated by the sports sector (Pioletti, 2017). As for the Italian context, the majority of sports facilities, and specifically football stadiums, present were designed and built in the first half of the twentieth century. Some important football stadiums, such as the "Meazza" in Milan and the "Franchi" in Florence date back to the 1920s, however, they are not the only ones, in fact, the average age of Italian Serie A stadiums is around 56 years, reaching 66 years in the case of Serie B facilities, the construction period of 42% of them is between 1911 and 1935, 30% between 1946 and 1970, 17% between 1970 and 1990 and only 11% between 1990 and today. (Battaglia S., Faroldi E) Furthermore, 63 out of 136 stadiums present in the territory are under protection, including Dall'Ara in Bologna, the Flaminio in Rome and the Franchi in Florence. Experimentation in foreign countries on the topic at hand is now consolidated. Case studies, of which the research, within the framework of the PhD thesis carried out within the PDTA Sapienza University of Rome, demonstrate how recovery and refunctionalization strategies of obsolete sports facilities can give positive results, in terms of social, economic and urban regeneration, in the urban context in which they are inserted. Among these, the experiences in Berlin with the Olympiastadion, in Turkey, Hatay, the Green Wings (1950 - renovation project 2019), in Barcelona with the renovation of both the stadium and the neighbourhood in which the Camp Nou is located, the same operation that is also taking place in Madrid with the Santiago Bernabeu. The cases of urban regeneration of Tirana and London are also emblematic. In Tirana, the Air National Stadium has been a generator of economic and social development for the neighbourhood in which it is located. On the site of the original stadium from the 1930s, the new stadium complies with UEFA regulations for sports facilities, at the same time "the search for elements of continuity between past and future, between tradition and innovation, becomes strategic, due to a way of thinking that does not preclude the recovery of traces of memory: symbols of the complex stratification of the city as an icon of a natural evolution and continuous development" (Battaglia S., Faroldi E., Arketipo). In London, Highbury Square, formerly Arsenal's Highbury Stadium, where the obsolete structure of the old sports infrastructure has been transformed into residences, with the football pitch becoming an urban park. In conclusion, the experiences, sometimes perhaps even too virtuous, of foreign countries could represent a starting point for the strategies of renovation of football stadiums in Italy, in the perspective of a city that renews and regenerates itself, respecting the territory and the soil it uses, paying particular attention to the stadium as a multifunctional system, usable 365 days a year, necessary in the urban context as a service, structure, aggregation center, and above all, a public space.