Events

Aviron Bayonnais heading to Reale Arena

Featured image credit: Bhgh543bgf/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size

French Top 14 rugby union club Aviron Bayonnais has announced plans to play an annual match at the Reale Arena in San Sebastián, while rival team Stade Rochelais is set to expand its home ground, the Stade Marcel-Deflandre.

Aviron Bayonnais has teamed up with the Spanish Rugby Federation (RFER) and the Basque Rugby Federation to promote the sport in the Basque region.

As part of the link-up, the team will play one match a year at Reale Arena, which primarily serves as the home of Spanish LaLiga football club Real Sociedad. San Sebastián is located around 57 kilometres from the city of Bayonne, where Aviron Bayonnais is based.

Aviron Bayonnais’ first match at Reale Arena will be against local rival Section Paloise on April 26. The team will also work with the federations to develop training programmes for young players through the AB Académie.

The partnership will form part of a long-term project to promote Basque rugby at a local, national and international level.

RFER president Juan Carlos Martín said: “The RFER is proud to present this agreement, which will allow us to work closely with a highly prestigious club to promote the development and dissemination of rugby with a key federation for us, the Basque Rugby Federation. This agreement reinforces our commitment to the expansion of our sport and contributes to the strengthening of a project that continues to attract more strategic partners.”

Philippe Tayeb, president of Aviron Bayonnais, added: “We believe that building long-lasting relationships with all players from the Basque Country is essential to building a united, supportive and ambitious rugby union that reflects the values that drive this sport. This partnership is much more than a sporting collaboration: it is a regional project.”

Meanwhile, the municipal council of La Rochelle has passed a resolution authorising Stade Rochelais to file a building permit to expand the Stade Marcel-Deflandre.  

The stadium has a current capacity of 16,689 but the club is hoping to increase this to 18,047. In 2023, 700 new seats were added in the Charente-Maritime stand.

French newspaper Le Parisien reports that the city will not provide any financial support to Stade Rochelais for the expansion, with the club expected to fund the project itself.