The A.S. Livorno Calcio once used the Villa Chayes Stadium, nearby the Naval Academy, for his matches but when the city team was promoted to the Serie A in 1928-29 Divisione Nazionale was indispensable to build a new larger one. The new stadium was built in 1933 on project by Raffaello Brizzi, with a capacity of 19,234, at Ardenza Mare district and was named to Edda Ciano Mussolini until 1945. It has been built in reinforced concrete, has an area of 30,000 square metre and two rectilinear gradins of the length of 90 m.[1]
The first match, Livorno vs. ACF Fiorentina, was played on October 8, 1933 when the stadium was uncompleted. It was inaugurated on March 24, 1935 with the match Italia B vs. Austria B.[2]
In the post war period it was used by the Americans of the nearby Camp Darby logistic base which renamed it “Yankee Stadium” for the occasion. The stadium was then designated Stadio Comunale di Livorno and for the 1960 Summer Olympics underwent a summary renovation, it hosted some of the football preliminaries, but was ignored as one of the site of Italia 90.[3] In the 1980s underwent to a reconstruction with the demolition of the distinctive Torre Maratona. In 1990 was entitled to the Livorno born and great player Armando Picchi who started playing in the home club before ending his career in the Inter. In 2005 for the coming back of the club in Serie A the stadium was renovated in order to improve the safety and the capacity of the structure. The old fashion stadium is currently used, for football matches and the A.S. Livorno Calcio home.
