What happened
Giuseppe Sinigaglia was born in Como in 1884 and built his sporting career on the water. After joining Canottieri Lario, he won national and European honours alongside Teodoro Mariani before producing his defining individual result at Henley Royal Regatta in 1914.
That victory in the Diamond Challenge Sculls made Sinigaglia the first Italian to win the event. It placed a Como athlete at the top of one of rowing’s most demanding competitions, two years before he was killed while serving in the First World War at the age of 32.
Como’s main stadium opened on 30 July 1927 and was named in his memory. The club moved into a ground carrying the name of a local sporting figure whose biggest triumph had come with oars rather than a ball.
The Como view
The Sinigaglia is unusual because the city’s sporting histories meet in one small stretch of waterfront. Football fills the ground on matchday, while Canottieri Lario—the club where Sinigaglia made his name—belongs to the same lakeside culture just beyond it.
Sempre Como Editorial Desk
That gives the name a meaning deeper than football nostalgia. It links Como 1907 to an older local tradition of training, competition and civic pride. Supporters say “the Sinigaglia” so naturally that it can sound like a place-name; in fact, every use keeps a Como athlete’s story alive.
Modern stadium conversations understandably focus on capacity, access and whether the ground can support the club’s ambitions. Whatever changes come, this history is worth carrying forward. The identity of Como’s home is tied to the water as closely as its view is.
Bottom line
Como play in a football ground named after a rower because Giuseppe Sinigaglia represented the city at the highest level and died young in wartime. The dedication turned a new civic stadium into a memorial when it opened in 1927.
For supporters, knowing that story changes the name from a label into a piece of local memory. The lake beside the pitch is not just the backdrop that makes the stadium famous; it is where the man behind the name became a champion.