Roma will press on with stadium plan (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, February 20 - AS Roma General Manager Mauro Baldissoni said Sunday night that the club would press on with a plan to build a new stadium in southern Rome despite Saturday's heritage superintendency ruling that a former horseracing venue on the site should be preserved because of its historical architectural value.
    Announcing a likely appeal to the Lazio regional court (TAR), Baldissoni said "we're going ahead on this plan that will see an overall investment of 2 billion euros and will cut Rome's jobless rate by 0.8%. He said some 60 million euros had already been put into the project.
    Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi, who had OK'd a scaled-down version of the original plan but said the administration would respect the superintendency's decision, is set to meet the leader of her anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), Beppe Grillo, later Monday.
    Grillo is expected to press her to renew support for the project despite protests from M5S grass roots who say it is an excuse for rampant building speculation.
    The million-cubic-metre project envisages three skyscrapers as well as a shops and office complex.
    Last week Raggi met with Roma officials and said she would not stand in the way of a revised project, 20% scaled down in volume.
    The race course at the Tor Di Valle site dates back to 1962.
    Baldissoni, in vowing to get past the superintendency's ruling, said the site was "decrepit and full of asbestos".