New rugby stadia in Paris

[ZeFrenchy]

FFR Stadium
After being a tenant of Stade de France for 12 years now, the Fédération française de rugby (FFR) announced in November 2010 that it would build its own 82,000 seat stadium, to serve as home ground for Les Bleus. In July this year, nine municipalities of the Paris metro area announced candidatures, six of which were retained as was announced in October this year (http://www.sportspromedia.com/notes..._cup_heroes_france_a_step_closer_to_new_home/ for the news in english).
This morning, the first of those candidatures was officially presented to the press, before the FFR announces the finalists this 10th of December.
press: http://www.leparisien.fr/val-de-marne-94/c-est-le-grand-stade-de-rugby-version-94-18-11-2011-1726194.php (in French)
Official site: http://www.thiais-orly-rugby.fr/ (in French, but with a lot of pictures that present the project quite well on their own)

The Thiais - Orly candidature is a joint project between the cities of Thiais, Orly, Chevilly-Larue and Rungis. It would be six kilometres south of Paris, and 1 km away from Orly airport. They claim to be the most easily accesible of all candidates: close to the airport, where there is also a TGV station, reached by a RER station (metropolitan express train) and soon reached by three different métro stations and a tramway, besides being nearby three high-speed roads that reach Paris and connect easily to the South-East and the South-West of France.
The other five candidatures have been less detailed so far. The websites are:
Évry-Centre-Essone: http://www.agglo-evry.fr/La-Communaute-d-agglomeration/La-candidature-pour-le-grand-stade-de-rugby (also south of Paris, well connected by roads, not so much by public transportation. In the site of an old horse racing track)
Achères (west of Paris)
Val D'Orges (also south, the same département as Evry-Centre-Essone)
Massy-Paris-Saclay: http://www.ville-massy.fr/UserFiles/VILLE DE MASSY_NOTE DE SYNTHESE.pdf (quite close to the first one, very well connected too)
Sevran: north of Paris, close to Charles de Gaulle airport, and atfirst glance more easily accesible from the UK (by Eurostar, and also closer to the Ryanair airport). Dossier in French but with a lot of images: http://www.ville-sevran.fr/rugby-en-grand-sevran

Besides, Racin-Métro are planning their own stadium: the Arena 92 will be by La Défense, in the continuity of the Louvre, Tuilerries, Champs-Elysées and La Grande Arche:

Also, Stade Français are rebuilding the Jean Bouin stadium, across the street from the Parc de Princes.

So, it seems to be moving but, as Le Figaro​ wonders... isn't it too much?

 

[oldscumbagonian]

Does seem a bit much. Stade de France is fine although I accept that you can seem to be at a bit of a distance from the action. But its position and easy public transport access to central Paris - and to the A1 motorway - make it a good stadium to visit. I used to live and work close to the old Jean Bouin stadium - a bit of a hole by modern standards. Shame that the club have gone down the tubes since demolition and rebuilding began.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Apparently is a matter of sponsoring and bussiness. A home game at SdF leaves 1,5m euros of earnings, whereas Millenium stadium and Twickenham leave 4 and 5 millions respectively because the unions can manage the games directly. Also, as an owner, the FFR can earn more troughout the year by concerts, visits, etc. (apparently this is a very good source of "liquidity" for the RFU)

I think that a rugby stadium in the south suburbs is the best idea. It is one of the areas of France where the sport is growing fastest and has the easiest access for people coming from the A6 and A10, that go directly to the heart of rugby in France. And the Massy TGV station helps with that too.

In the west, you already have the Parc and Bouin, but if RM92 want to build a better stadium then Colombes, and closer to Paris, you can't really blame them.
SF will probably keep using SdF for their bigger games, unless the FFR can make a more profitable offer. SF feel SdF is their "home".

 

[Seaton]

82, 000 eh?

Would imagine they would be looking at it being a 5 star/ world class stadium as well, so what might the price tag be? I imagine (also) more than 300 million Euros, ambitious plan in the early recovery stages of a recession, never mind the current debt crises.

 

[psychic duck]

Racing's stadium isn't that good, their home record isn't that good compared too other French teams, can't believe it once hosted the Olympics

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Racing's stadium isn't that good, their home record isn't that good compared too other French teams, can't believe it once hosted the Olympics

It's actually pretty basic. Not easy to access, small, toilettes not good, etc. They can do with a better one.

 

[oldscumbagonian]

I'd certainly agree with that.

But why would SF build a new stadium on the site of the old Jean Bouin and then play their bigger games at SdF. Money, of course but it does mean that the new stadium will get a good deal less use.

Your thoughts about a stadium on the south side of Paris are interesting. I guess I was looking at it from the point of view of people arriving at Charles de Gaulle or driving down the A1 from Calais. The latter should help to clog the bd Peripherique even more!

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Doing some research, it wasn't SF who demolished Jean Bouin. It's actually a project from the city of Paris for the Olympic Games 2012 candidature. After they failed, the project went on with some changes. It was supposed to be ready by the summer 2012, but it's probably already late. http://renover.jeanbouin.free.fr/index.php?lng=fr

 

[oldscumbagonian]

Thanks for that. I see that they are talking about March 2013 being the date they return to JB. I recall a long battle between SF and the local residents who were opposed to the plans, presumably on the basis of all the inconvenience that the construction work would cause. But if you live alongside Parc des Princes (PSG's ground) you would have to be pretty tolerant! In the end SF's owner had good links with the Mayor of Paris and these, no doubt, helped.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Thiais-Orly and Evry-Centre-Essonne were chosen as the finalists.

Pros and cons of each (imo)

Thiais-Orly:
Pros: very easy to access from Paris and from the south, in the middle of the fastest growing rugby community in the country.
Cons: cost of the land

Evry-Centre-Essonne:
Pros: cheap land, will help urbanize and develop the area, as it happenned with Saint Denis and the SdF. Close to the FFR training ground.
Cons: farther away from Paris and from the airports/train stations.

 

[gingergenius]

sounds like a waste of money. they should wait until Paris gets the olympics and get the FFR to bankroll the olympic stadium for specific rugby use afterwards.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Some news:
The Grand Stade will be built in Evry, a pretty bad decision imo.

Jean Bouin is looking close to be ready. It's already late, but it looks like it will be on time for the start of next season.

Finally, this morning the last legal obstacle for the Arena 92 was lifted. It will be a 40,000-seat mutli-use stadium, surrounded by office buildings, bars, restaurants and a park. The cost of the project will be 320 million euros! Originally, it was supposed to open next year, but now it is scheduled to open in 2015.
It sounds crazy to me, but I won't pretend to know better than one of the top real-estate investors in the country.

 

[RedWhiteGreen]

What will they be doing with the new Grand Stade apart from having eight or so rugby matches a year? Are they going to get a club tenant in, or use it for gigs or what? If they don't know how it's going to be used 52 weeks a year it sounds like it could be a stark raving waste of money ...

 

[Tony Manx]

What will they be doing with the new Grand Stade apart from having six or so rugby matches a year? Are they going to get a club tenant in, or use it for gigs or what? If they don't know how it's going to be used 52 weeks a year it sounds like it could be a stark raving waste of money ...

http://populous.com/posts/frances-new-home-of-rugby-is-much-more-than-a-stadium/

 

[Nielsch]

What will they be doing with the new Grand Stade apart from having six or so rugby matches a year? Are they going to get a club tenant in, or use it for gigs or what? If they don't know how it's going to be used 52 weeks a year it sounds like it could be a stark raving waste of money ...

Does Twickenham have just six matches a year?