Inter Milan are exploring plans to renovate the San Siro and make it their own home should AC Milan build a new stadium.
AC Milan revealed plans last week for a new 48,000-seater stadium which they hope to build and move into in time for the 2018-19 season.
That would leave Inter as the only tenants of the state-owned Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in the San Siro district of Milan, and they are reportedly keen on securing the venue for themselves.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, a preliminary meeting between representatives of Inter and the City of Milan council was due to be held on Tuesday morning.
If all goes according to plan, the two clubs will continue to share the ground and pay rent to the city council until 2018. Inter will then either purchase the venue outright or renegotiate terms as sole tenant.
They would then be able to carry out urgent renovation work at a stadium nevertheless deemed suitable by UEFA to stage the final of the Champions League next year.
Currently, both clubs pay an annual rent of 4.1 million euros for use of the venue. However, since it is still owned by the council, any major redevelopment work must be agreed upon -- and financed -- by all three parties. This has led to only the bare minimum work, necessary to adhere to new regulations, being carried out since the 1990 World Cup.
Inter president Erick Thohir is said to want to carry out major improvements, including reducing the capacity from 80,000 to 56,000 by removing the upper tier. Given average crowd figures for the two Milanese clubs in recent years, the stadium would still rarely be filled with Inter averaging over 10,000 less than that and Milan less still.
Juventus, the last Serie A club to open a new stadium, deemed a capacity of 41,000 suitable for their needs at their Juventus Stadium, which is full for almost every match. By comparison, they were averaging less than 20,000 in their previous home, the Stadio Olimpico.