Former Olympique Lyonnais owner Jean-Michel Aulas reportedly wants to purchase the newly built OL Vallée Arena, also known as LDLC Arena for sponsorship reasons.
LDLC Arena is located near French Ligue 1 club Lyon’s Groupama Stadium, and is home to LNB Pro A basketball team LDLC ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne.
According to L’Équipe, Aulas’ family company Holnest entered into exclusive discussions with OL Groupe to purchase the arena earlier this week.
The report added that the date of May 31 has been set for the negotiations to be finalised and for all shares in ownership for the venue to be sold.
Aulas stepped aside from his role at the Ligue 1 club’s ownership group, OL Groupe, in December.
The move followed Lyon’s sale to US technology entrepreneur John Textor the previous December, for a deal reportedly worth more than €800m (£686m/$869m).
Designed by Populous, LDLC Arena is France’s largest indoor arena outside of Paris, and has a capacity of 16,000 for concerts and roughly 12,000 for sporting events.
The €141m LDLC Arena opened in November last year with a EuroLeague basketball game, as an attendance of 11,354 watched ASVEL’s narrow defeat to Bayern Munich.
