American owner of AS Roma is optimistic to see the first shovel in late 2015. While that’s a year behind schedule, James Pallotta is satisfied.

Roma president and American investor James Pallotta remains optimistic that construction will begin on a new stadium inspired by the Colosseum by the end of the year. This means it’s already a year behind initial expectations, which suggested groundbreaking in late 2014.

However, Pallotta claims delivery in 2016 is still possible. ''We're still on the same timetable,'' Pallotta told The Associated Press. ''It's actually going pretty well. Everyone wants it - the mayor, the city council - it's just an incredibly complex project,'' Pallotta said following Roma's 1-1 draw with Juventus on Monday.

''It's not complex because of the regulatory side of it. It's just a complex project,'' Pallotta said. ''It's not a football stadium that's only for football. There's an office park, there's a training facility, there's 300,000 square feet of live entertainment space. There's going to be festivals and concerts and (American) college football games. So it's a very, very complicated facility.'' Altogether the project will require some €1 billion, of which the stadium alone is priced at €341 million.

The American investor met on Friday with Rome mayor to discuss the project. 'There's a lot of optimism and a lot of certainty to begin seeing workers building the stadium by the end of 2015,'' mayor Ignazio Marino said after the meeting.