Stadio Alberto Picco (Alberto Picco Stadium), La Spezia

The Alberto Picco stadium is an Italian football facility in La Spezia. Inaugurated in 1919, it hosts Spezia 's home matches ; it is named in memory of Alberto Picco, the first player of the club to score a goal and who fell in the Great War as a second lieutenant of the Alpini. On 16 December 2020, the stadium hosted Spezia's first Serie A match, their first participation in the top flight championship in their history, against Bologna. In fact, due to the adaptation works to the facility, necessary to obtain approval for the same in order to guarantee the La Spezia team to play their home matches regularly as per the rules imposed by the Serie A League, the Ligurian team had to therefore play the first five home games of the championship at the Orogel Stadium-Dino Manuzzi in Cesena.

Alberto Picco was born in Spezia on July 14th, 1894. As a councilor, he was part of the initial company organization chart drawn up after the first Spezia meeting, dated November 20th, 1911. He was also a footballer, lined up in the first formation of Spezia in the match that saw it facing the formation of Virtus Juventusque of Livorno: Ferrari, Luppi, Danè, Baggiani, Capecchi, Merani, Vanelli, Raddi, Picco, Molaschi, Cozzani. He was the first scorer in that match that ended with the score of 2-2. Alberto Picco, however, was destined to go down in the history of Spezia for the adverse fate that reserved a premature death on the battlefield, June 16th, 1915, when, just over twenty years old, took part in the battle for the conquest of Mount Black with the Alpine corps. Spezia has entitled to him the stadium erected in 1919 after the end of the conflict. Since 1922 a memorial stone, at the entrance of the stadium, remembers the names of Spezia's fallen soldiers: Alberto Picco, Umberto Toso, Ferruccio Francesconi, Bruno Zambelli, Paride Ferrari, Ciro Orsini.

The Alberto Picco stadium is the main football stadium in La Spezia. Since 1919 it hosts the home games of Spezia Calcio. The plant is named for Alberto Picco, a soldier who died heroically during the First World War and the first goal scorer of the Ligurian club. The Alberto Picco stadium was built at the end of the First World War on an area granted by the Navy. The plant was built quickly to offer the Spezia F.B.C. a suitable field in which to play the first official championship, that of Ligurian Promotion of 1919-20. The stadium, however, was not ready for the first match of the tournament, which had to be played on the field of the other city team, Virtus.

Stadio Alberto Picco has been the home of Spezia Calcio since 1919. The stadium was built in a rush to provide Spezia with a home for their first league season, but wasn’t finished in time. The stadium officially opened on 7 December 1919 with a league match between Spezia and SC Genova (8-0). The stadium consisted of wooden stands in English style. The stadium was named after Alberto Picco, a former player that had died in the First World War. The first concrete stand was built in 1933 when a new main stand was erected. It took until the 1960s for a first concrete curve to follow. The stadium underwent further developments in the late 1980s when another concrete curve got built and the rest of the stadium got updated, resulting in a capacity of 15,000. Few changes have been made since though the stadium underwent some refurbishments in 2006 when the club promoted to the Serie B. Safety measures have furthermore reduced capacity to its current 10,000. ***PH***