Featured image credit: Guilhem Vellut/CC BY 2.0/Edited for size
Paris Saint-Germain is reportedly set to submit a bid to buy the Stade de France amid uncertainty over the Ligue 1 football club’s future at its current home, the Parc des Princes.
It was widely reported last month that PSG would participate in a new tender process to determine the future of the Stade de France, while the club was also said to be in talks over potentially developing a new stadium on the site of the Saint-Cloud racecourse.
PSG later launched a consultation with its fans over the club’s stadium options, with four options outlined. Options include a “significant” renovation of the Parc des Princes, a move to a renovated Stade de France, a new stadium to the west of Paris, and a new venue within a 20km radius of the Parc des Princes that could encompass the commune of Poissy.
The Stade de France is currently owned by the French government through the Consortium Stade de France. Through an agreement with the consortium formed by construction firms Vinci and Bouygues, the state granted the management of the 77,083-capacity stadium to the two companies in 1995.
The contract with Vinci and Bouygues is set to end on July 1, 2025, with the state publishing two calls for tenders on March 7, one for the outright sale of the stadium and the other for a new concession agreement.
April 27 has been set as the deadline for responses, and French newspaper L’Équipe has now reported that PSG will be submitting a bid to buy the stadium. The price to acquire the venue would reportedly be around €600m (£532m/$658m), with further investment required to convert it to the outright needs of a football club as its owner, from its current status as a multi-functional stadium.
FIFA, football’s global governing body, has reportedly expressed an interest in buying the Stade de France. The stadium hosts matches played by France’s national football and rugby union teams and will also be used during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris next year.
PSG has been battling with the City of Paris over its future at the Parc des Princes. In January, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, ramped up the rhetoric, whilst rubbishing suggestions that the Stade de France could be an alternative home for the club.
Earlier in the month, PSG threatened to leave the Parc des Princes after Hidalgo insisted the stadium, which has a capacity of 48,000 and has been the club’s home since 1974, was not for sale.
In February, it was reported that PSG had appointed premium experiences company Legends and Canadian real estate firm Colliers to assess its stadium options.
Hidalgo has said that the City of Paris would prefer to discuss a potential renegotiation of PSG’s lease deal at the Parc des Princes rather than a sale of the venue. The current 30-year agreement commenced in 2014.
PSG has spent €85m in renovation work on Parc des Princes in recent years, and has further committed €500m to improve and expand the stadium, increasing capacity from 48,000 to in excess of 60,000. However, PSG would only provide this funding if it owns the stadium.
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