A brand new lawn, Spanish and an operation far from being green. In forty-eight hours flat, a “high” lawn near Barcelona was installed at the Stade de France. And by Saturday evening and the holding of the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool, the meadow will be pampered. In the stadium located in Saint-Denis, a ballet of trucks unloads some 500 rolls of lawn like bales of hay. Inside the enclosure, the tractors unfold each roll, weighing between 750 kilos and 1 tonne, like a strip of plant carpet 15 meters long by 1.20 meters wide. Next door, teams are busy, armed with blowers to remove the grains of sand emanating from the substrate on which the lawn has grown since November in a “turf farm” north of Barcelona. Others are busy joining the strips together perfectly. The load arrived in two batches via 24 refrigerated semi-trailers.
The previous lawn has been removed, “scalped” as the Stade de France teams say, the day after the Coupe de France final in early May, and before a long series of concerts took over, culminating in Indochina, last Saturday. A series that the lawn could not bear. “It’s a huge logistical challenge,” summarizes Loïc Duroselle, institutional director of the Stade de France: instead of carrying out the operation in five days, his teams only have two days ahead of them “because of the Indochina-Champions League sequence”.
“Short strand to play fast”
The proliferation of concerts after two years of Covid, alternated with sports competitions, required the rapid laying of this all-in-one lawn, made up of a synthetic mat on which natural grass grows. The unexpected arrival on the program of the Champions League final in Saint-Denis, when it was initially scheduled for Saint Petersburg, accelerated the process. Once the “veneering” of the 8,800 square meters is finished by Wednesday evening, it will have to be watered, pampered, pampered, squared with strips and traced the markings before the 22 players torment it with crampons on Saturday evening. In total, the operation will cost “between 300,000 and 500,000 euros”, according to the Stade de France teams.
At the edge of the field, the Briton Andy Cole, one of the best European turf specialists, technical consultant for the subsidiary of Vinci iTurf Management which supervises the operation, is very caring. “We must not forget that there is 5% synthetic but therefore 95% natural grass”, explains this pro who likes to be called “The Original Andy Cole”, in reference to his namesake, the former glory of Manchester United. It is this expert 57-year-old “gardener” who will ensure that everything is ready for the first training sessions on Friday.
“The challenge is the planimetry, the ball must roll perfectly”, explains for his part Benoît Lavallée, deputy programming director of the Stade de France. By Saturday, the two teams will have been able to formulate their grievances with UEFA in terms of pitch, in particular on the height. “Madrid would like to play between 20 and 23 millimetres. Madrid want to play fast, the shorter the strand the better. explains Benoît Lavallée. But, it is UEFA who will decide, “probably around 24, 25”, he predicts.
So much meticulous work so that after a month this new lawn was finally removed. After the final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, the grass will still have to withstand the matches of the French football team against Denmark and Croatia. Then, the lawn will taste the screwed studs of the rugby players who will compete in the Top 14 final scheduled for June 24. After having been so tested, the grass will be removed and transported towards Le Mans and its stadium, the MMArena. “It will be rolled again, reloaded and sent to Le Mans where it will quietly end its life”, explains Benoît Lavallée. The goal: to replace the current lawn at the end of its life. The new adornment should remain for the next four or five years.