Paris Saint-Germain has been immersed in a tense showdown with the Paris town hall around the Parc des Princes for several years, its mythical enclosure since 1974. The club, owned by the Qatari QSI fund since 2011, wishes to acquire the stadium in order to be able to initiate a vast renovation and enlargement project. The goal: to pass the capacity of 48,000 to around 60,000 places, while modernizing the facilities to respond to the standards of the largest European clubs and generate more income (ticket office, hospitalities, naming). But the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, categorically refused to sell the stadium, evoking reasons of heritage, urban coherence and budgetary balance for the city. PSG, for its part, says that it has invested more than 85 million euros in the park since 2011, without having the full control of its tool. The conflict is now public, sustainable, and prompted the club to officially threaten to leave the Parc des Princes, evoking a “situation that has become untenableFor its strategic development. Nasser Al-Khelaïfi had also said on this subject last November: “I really like the Parc des Princes, everyone loves it. If I decide with my heart, I say that we do not leave. But when I think with my head, we died. In Europe, all large clubs have 80,000 or 90,000 places. If we want to be of this level for our supporters, we must enlarge the stadium. There is no other solution. If it is acted? We're going to leave. We have no choice. The city leaves us not the choice. It is a decision of the city because we cannot do what we want in the stadium».
In this context, several Île-de-France municipalities have said they were ready to welcome the future “Hub” of PSG, which would not be a simple stadium, but a multifunctional complex like big clubs such as Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. The club is looking for sufficient space (around 50 to 70 hectares) to build an enclosure of more than 60,000 places, accompanied by shops, restaurants, hotel, club museum, fan zones, business center and logistics infrastructure. Among the potential sites, Poissy (Yvelines) – where PSG has already established its training campus – is in good position. Gonesse (in Val-d'Oise), who seeks to relaunch the development of the Gonesse triangle area after the abandonment of the EuropaCity project, is also in the running. Montigny-le-Bretonneux (in the Yvelines), or Saint-Denis, near the Stade de France, were also mentioned. These municipalities see it as a chance to energize their territory economically and symbolically. This new stadium project would represent a historic turning point for PSG, at the crossroads between a sentimental attachment to its place of origin and the need to grow on a global scale. But another municipality is ready to thwart the plans of its competitors: the city of Ris-Orangis in Essonne has arguments to satisfy the direction of PSG with a site of a 100 hectare surface which includes the old racetrack and the ex-user of Lu-Danone, located 25 kilometers from the capital, accessible with lines D and C of the RER, A6, as well as the national roads N7 and N14. The project can possibly enjoy a strengthening of public transport as part of the development of Greater Paris. This file, soberly entitled “Objectif 2030”, has several strategic advantages for Paris Saint-Germain that elected officials wanted to present to the press this Wednesday, May 14.
A stadium of 90,000 places?
The city has put the small dishes in the big ones for its application file. Being the old disused hippodrome of 83 hectares, the wasteland of the former Lu-Danone and the Saint-Eutrope wood, the municipality of Ris-Orangis can offer a total of 100 hectares arranged for 2030 without servitude in order to avoid an ecological catastrophe, nor close to the risk of sound pollution: “It is true that it has been a year that the first contacts took place with the club and that so far we have decided, it is a real decision, to be as discreet as possible to preserve the integrity of the dialogue with the instructors of the file, with the decision -makers also of the file. Except that the press has grasped this question and we saw a flood of paper and there were lots of things that were said, that were false, completely false. And therefore to regain control and to initiate a public debate and to allow the club above all to instruct with as much objectivity as possible, it was normal that we present our assets before public opinion, in front of the press, embodying the arguments which have just been developed very quickly. We have the intimate conviction that the site we offer is an exceptional site, unique and ideal for the establishment of the future stadium of Paris Saint-Germain and its village. Why is this site ideal? First, because it is tall. He is extremely generous. We indicate that our plans and our documents sent to the general management of the club, the 100 hectares of the wasteland of the racetrack, but also the 17 hectares of the wasteland of the former Lu-Danone. More than 100 hectares in the dense urban area and at the same time sufficiently distant from the first homes to allow us to have the ambition to develop an urban project as ambitious as that of Paris Saint-Germain“Said the mayor of Ris-Orangis and departmental councilor of Essonne, Stéphane Raffalli at length. The hippodrome is closed and abandoned since 1996 when France-Galop has decided to leave the premises to settle in Vincennes and Boulogne. In the 1970s, it was a very popular family place for the inhabitants of the south of Paris.
The city of Ris-Orangis is just promising many developments to create a real hub village dedicated to Paris Saint-Germain where the Qatari management can easily install restaurants, shops, museums and all other activities related to the history and news of PSG: “Its first characteristic is to be an extremely large, vast and comfortable space for a major urban project. If we slightly diszoom, beyond 100 hectares, you have a few hundred meters in the town of Bondoufle, another land that can be interesting for PSG. It is the famous Stade Bobin, a stadium of 20,000 places available, which has not quite found its vocation since its creation and which could be used for activities offered by this great club in Paris Saint-Germain, we obviously and very spontaneously think of the women's teams who need a place both training and broadcasting their match. All these land, and essentially the two main terrains, are public land. They belong to the community of large Paris Sud agglomerations and are currently carried by a tool that elected officials are well aware of, the land establishment in the Île-de-France region on behalf of our intermunicipal association. This is a considerable advantage, since it is the local block, the agglomeration and the municipalities concerned which hold all the prerogatives which can decide with the club of the future of this land. We unify the dialogue between an economic player, a large sports club and a local block which is unified around the idea of the sale“Added Stéphane Raffalli who describes the Ris-Orangis file as”Corcing all boxes». The Department of Essonne and the municipalities concerned (Ris-Orangis and Grigny in particular) are favorable to the project, or even proactive to accommodate PSG. This wasteland of the racetrack had also already been the subject of lusts of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) to install its large enclosure, before the project was abandoned by the newly elected president Bernard Laporte.
PSG, new face of the capital?
This colossal project is also supported by other major players in the region, in particular the Greater Paris Sud and Coeur d'Essonneration agglomeration. Enough to change local ties and give weight to a file with great looks: “There is a common desire to bring this candidacy. I have no doubt for a moment that PSG arrives here before 2030, which will allow us to go more often, since ultimately, it will be right next to it. At the heart of Essonne, it seemed to us immediately natural and the elected officials did not hesitate for a second to support this candidacy. Which is still important, and this is undoubtedly the only file where we have two territories which combine and which bear this candidacy together. This project has great strength. This Southern Ile-de-France is really the locomotive in this large island-de-France. That's why there are many of us. This is why with our colleagues, we associate ourselves with great enthusiasm and a lot of desire“, Continued Eric Braive, president of the heart of Essonne Agglomeration and mayor of Leuville-sur-Orge at length. “”There is not in France a major project that comes out if there is not a political unity. This political unity today, it exists on the territory since the 23 mayors are here. It is a living area of 600,000 inhabitants who bear this candidacy in a certain way. Our site is extraordinary for an extraordinary project with very high potential. The future of Île-de-France is built here, in our young territories, innovative where sport is an essential engine. This project connected to the capital and its region is strongly supported by all the actors, who are united to build unique equipment with PSG,“Completed Michel Bison, president of the Grand Paris Sud agglomeration and mayor of Lieusaint. Leaving the Porte d'Auteuil to move 25 kilometers from Paris could nevertheless cool some Parisian supporters from the 20 arrondissements or the small crown.
But for Stéphane Raffalli, the impact of PSG must be widespread in all of Île-de-France, in order to make the club of the capital a symbol as powerful as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre or the Arc de Triomphe. : “The Paris Saint-Germain project is by nature a popular project. And that it is installed on a popular territory, it seems to me to be consistent. The fact that, historically, Paris Saint-Germain found its place and its garden at the Porte d'Auteuil, it obviously determined a part of its identity. But here we claim it all the time, as local elected officials of the second crown, we are Grand Paris. Here is Paris in large. This is our slogan. Here is Paris in large. Why did we chant this from the first moments of our candidacy? First, to be respectful of affiliation with supporters. It's their slogan in every game. Here is Paris. The second thing is that here we can think of a large equipment project. This is the whole debate on the borders of Greater Paris. Me, I imagine that here, it is the entrance to Paris and that at the entrance to Paris, we will see the Stade du Paris Saint-Germain. PSG will mark the southern entrance to Paris, because there are all those who will come to the village of Paris Saint-Germain, because it is a place of destination not simply on match days. The stadium will be a totem. It will be seen and will be done to be seen. He will be seen from the Ile -de -France, from the A6 motorway …“Concluded Raffalli. If the final choice belongs to PSG, the rising risks make it a weight candidate. It remains to be seen whether the Parisian club will bet on Essonne to write a new page in its history. Between equestrian past and dreams of glory, Ris-Orangis hopes to offer PSG more than a stadium: a setting for its legend. Will the fate of the Parisian club are written on these lands in search of Renaissance?
