Featured image credit: Stade Brestois 29
Ligue 1 football club Stade Brestois 29 has announced that its new stadium, which it hopes to move into in 2027, will be called Arkéa Park.
Financial services group Crédit Mutuel Arkéa had already acquired naming rights to Projet Espace Froutven, the venture to deliver a new stadium for Stade Brestois, but the official name of the venue was yet to be confirmed.
The company has sponsored Stade Brestois for more than 50 years and it has held naming rights to one of the stands at the club’s current home, Stade Francis-Le Blé, since 2010.
Julien Carmona, president of Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, said: “Beyond just sporting issues, which make the construction of a new stadium essential, Arkéa Park will be a place of life, meetings and exchanges thanks to the numerous local services and activities offered, while responding to legitimate environmental concerns of stakeholders.
“Arkéa Park embodies our attachment to Brest Métropole, where our group’s headquarters are located, as well as our commitment to promoting the region’s influence and the well-being of its inhabitants.”
Arkéa’s naming-rights contract for the new stadium will run for eight years. The company acquired naming rights shortly after it emerged that the timeline for the project had slipped by a year due to rising costs, with both the club and Brest Métropole officially discounting the possibility of redeveloping the Stade Francis-Le Blé.
Plans for the new 15,000-seat stadium were unveiled in 2022. The Espace Froutven project has been designed by architecture firm Groupe François de La Serre.
Stade Brestois first detailed plans for a new home back in March 2018 and in January 2020 president Denis Le Saint maintained that the club was firmly committed to delivering a new stadium, with plans at the time revolving around a 13,000-seat stadium that would be ready by the end of the 2021-22 season.
Under the new plans, the 15,000-seat stadium will feature 11,800 seats reserved for the general public, with the remainder dedicated to commercial partners.
The original financing plan, carried mainly by the private sector, estimated a price tag of €85m (£73.4m/$93.1m). Brest Métropole had set out that work could start in 2024, with delivery scheduled for 2026.
Under the revised plans, work is now expected to commence in 2025, with a view to Stade Brestois being able to move into the new stadium in 2027. The project, carried mainly by the private sector (54.5%), is still awaiting contributions of funds from the public sector, to complete a budget which is now estimated at €106.5m.
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