A plan B at 600 million euros. Paris Saint-Germain has applied to buy Stade de France and should take concrete action at the end of the month. According to L’Equipe, the club from the capital will file a file on April 27 to acquire the Dionysian enclosure. For three months, the PSG has come up against the refusal of the town hall of Paris to give it the Parc des Princes.
Nasser Al-Khelaïfi’s first wish was always to become the owner of the 16th arrondissement enclosure in order to be able to enlarge it. Nevertheless, Anne Hidalgo described her decision not to sell the Park as “firm and definitive”. The Parisian team should therefore respond to the call for expressions of interest (AMI) for the Stade de France, the deadline for which is scheduled for April 27. The file will be judged 70% on the financial capacity of the applicant and 30% on that of managing the place.
Among the candidates, PSG would be the only one to plan to establish itself at the Stade de France as a resident club. The stadium concession belongs to the Vinci-Bouygues consortium until 2025. The State, owner of the setting, had launched calls for tenders for the “Stade de France operating concession” and for the “transfer of the Stade de France with charges” in early March, according to L’Equipe.
Works at the Stade de France
The State requires the new buyer to maintain “the sporting vocation of the Stadium for a period of 25 years” and to bring together different sporting events, such as the Olympic Games or the matches of the French football and rugby teams. . A major challenge when PSG is already juggling a busy schedule and the lawn could suffer from this plurality of meetings.
Another difficulty: the Stade de France must be downgraded before being sold. It can only be through a legislative vote, since it belongs to the Domains. On the other hand, PSG’s desire for work could play in its favor, still according to L’Equipe. With a capacity of 80,000 seats, the “SDF” could be refitted to accommodate 70,000 spectators. The stands would be re-tilted and brought closer to the pitch. The sum of the purchase price and this work could raise the total cost to around one billion euros.
Finally, the next owner will also have to take care of the management and maintenance of the new footbridge which connects the stadium to the aquatic center of the Olympic Games, passing over the A1 motorway.