Design & Development

Lens launches crowdfunding campaign to aid stadium plans

Featured image credit: Liondartois/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size

French Ligue 1 football club RC Lens has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support renovation work at its home stadium, Stade Bollaert-Delelis.

Lens is inviting fans to have their name displayed on a commemorative plaque on the stadium’s gates. The initiative, entitled Aux noms de Bollaert (The names of Bollaert), has been launched to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the stadium’s opening.

It is hoped the entire stadium gates will be covered in the plaques, which will feature supporters’ names and a personalised message. The plaque can be ordered for 10 years at a price of €90 (£80/$98), while a lifetime plaque will cost €190.60, spread across four payments.

The plaques will be classified in the order they are purchased. Number 1 has been assigned to Félix Bollaert, the former director of the Compagnie des Mines who lent his name to the stadium, while Number 2 will commemorate André Delelis, the former Deputy-Mayor of Lens whose name was added to the stadium’s official moniker upon his death in September 2012.

Fans will be able to order a plaque until June 18, exactly 90 years after the stadium opened, with the installation to take place over the summer ahead of the 2023-24 season. Lens said the money generated by selling the plaques will be put towards renovating the stadium.

The club plans on creating a festive space for fans at Stade Bollaert-Delelis. The space will feature food and drinks stalls and pre-match entertainment.

Lens is currently third in Ligue 1 after 28 games of the season.