PSG: Stade de France takeover files must be submitted before January 3

2023-09-25 01:45:08

Paris Saint-Germain will have more time to refine their candidacy. Originally, applicants for the repurchase or resumption of the Stade de France concession had to submit their application in November. Finally, they will have until January 3, the new deadline, to present their offer and their plans for the future of the Saint-Denis enclosure. This will allow each candidate to refine an extremely complex and expensive file.

PSG applied for the takeover last April, responding to the call for expressions of interest launched by the State through Bercy and the Ministry of Sports. A few days later, Vinci-Bouygues became the second declared candidate. The construction group has been responsible for managing the Dionysian enclosure since its construction in 1995. It has submitted a second application for the renewal of the concession, which runs until 2025.

As a reminder, the State had launched two procedures in parallel: one concerns the sale of this 80,000-seat stadium, the other on the renewal of the concession to Vinci-Bouygues (respectively 2/3 and 1/3 ). Three application files were selected for the purchase of the stadium. For the renewal of the concession, the Lyon-based company GL Events is in the race and has joined forces with Paris Entertainment Company, which operates the Paris-Bercy sports center and the Adidas Arena.

For PSG, the priority is always to stay at the Parc des Princes, to modernize it and increase its capacity to 60,000 places. But this project is currently at a standstill, the dialogue between Anne Hidalgo and Nasser al-Khelaïfi having broken down for several months. It results from the refusal of the Paris town hall to cede the Porte de Saint-Cloud enclosure even though, according to PSG, it had initially given its agreement. “Very clearly, the Parc des Princes is not for sale,” declared the mayor of Paris to readers of Le Parisien on January 14. And it won’t be sold. This is a firm and definitive position.”

In the process, the leaders of PSG estimated that “the mayor is forcing PSG to leave its house”. They had decided to study alternative solutions. The construction of a new stadium, too costly and too complicated, was quickly abandoned and the option of a move to the Stade de France remains to this day the only credible one. You still have to be the candidate selected by the State. Which is far from won. Purchasers must in fact undertake to maintain the usual events at the Stade de France, namely Blues football and rugby matches, as well as a minimum number of major concerts. Will this calendar be compatible with that of a club like PSG? This is one of the many questions that leaders will need to answer.