Juventus marked its first Serie A match in its new home by defeating Parma 4-1 on Sunday. The Juventus Arena, which is yet to be given an official name despite a long search for a naming rights partner, breaks new ground for Italian football. With the majority of Serie A teams still having to pay rental fees to city councils for the right to play in their stadia, the Juventus Arena represents Italy’s first privately owned football venue.

In the wake of failed bids for both UEFA Euro 2012 and 2016, Italy’s football venues have seen little improvement since the country hosted the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Club officials have become increasingly concerned about the ability of Italian clubs to compete against their English and Spanish counterparts with teams still hamstrung by their inability to drive match day revenues. Mazzia believes Juventus’ ability to strike first in Italian stadium development will herald future benefits. “Stadium revenues for last season were Eur11.5 million of which Eur9.8 million came through ticketing and Eur1.7 million for other services, an amount that was around 7.5% of total revenue,” he told Reuters.

“The new stadium offers a completely different scenario. We predict stadium revenues to increase to 15% of commercial income, which is double the current amount, with revenue rising to Eur32 million of which Eur20 million will come from ticketing and Eur6 million from naming rights,” Mazzia added. “Today Juventus is the only Italian club to own its stadium. While it's probable that others will follow our lead, I haven't see any new plans, so from that point of view Juventus has a competitive advantage of at least four or five years.”

The Juventus Arena may only have a capacity of 41,000, but club officials hope it will provide an antidote to their previous permanent home, the Stadio Delle Alpi. The 69,000-seat Delle Alpi failed to curry favour with the club’s fans as a running track and poor attendances contributed to a muted atmosphere. “We believe that it's better to have a stadium that's a bit smaller but almost always full and closer to the team than to have a much bigger one that only gets sold out for a few games,” Mazzia added.