The Stade de France, for sale

He France stadiumthe emblematic place where France He won his first World Cup, the FC Barcelona his fourth Champions League and the real Madrid two others, it may cease to belong to the French State and pass into private hands. Shortly after serving as the Olympic stadium for the 2024 Games, the venue will need to find a new owner or a new management contract. The president, Emmanuel Macron, who initiated the operation from the Élysée, wants to stop the bleeding of the costs required by the venue, which already costs more than 1,000 million euros to the public treasury.

The presentation of candidacies closed on Thursday and, for the first time, the State opened the door to its sale. The procedure is confidential and only Paris Saint-Germain has publicly announced their intention to apply to take over the silhouette that dominates the north of Paris. The rest remains in the realm of speculation. FIFA is another potential buyer, like UEFA, with the aim of having a perennial and prestigious venue for the Champions League finals.

But none of these names seem to have a solid project to take over the field. “For me they are more rumors than real wills,” explained Jérome Moulard, a doctor in sports management from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), to EFE.

Measure of pressure from the Qataris on the City Council?

Even in their best years, PSG could not stake a claim to fill the 80,000 seats of the Stade de France on a regular basis, beyond a few Champions League nights, which would have put them in front of a half-empty venue, with the consequence of injury to his image, estimates this expert. The club’s Qatari owners are using this operation, according to Moulard, to put pressure on the City Council, which is currently refusing to sell them the Parc des Princes.

As for FIFA and UEFA, their projects are not clear and a stadium with these characteristics is not justified for ambitions that are so small. Especially since the potential buyer has acquired a place that is more than a quarter of a century old and requires a large investment, which Moulard estimates at 500 million euros to adapt it to the standards of the most modern stadiums in Europe .

“If they want to compete with new stadiums, with what Real Madrid or FC Barcelona are doing, with what Tottenham has done, to attract sporting events, but also concerts and other event, they have to put their hands in their pockets “, Explain.

That will add to the cost of the stadium, between 400 and 600 million, a pharaonic investment that could deter more than one. Moulard believes that the only ones capable of buying the stadium are the two construction companies that built it in 1997, with an eye on the World Cup next year, and have since had an operating contract, which ends in 2025. .

Bouygues and Vinci, two giants of French public works, have the financial strength, management experience and economic set-up to acquire the stadium, according to this academic.

He believed that they could devote the profits they had pocketed in the last quarter of a century to finance the purchase, including those obtained from its construction, and that, since they were committed to the works, they would be able to reduce the margin of the necessary work to adapt it to the new Times. This gives them significant competitive advantages over other rivals, although they have not officially disclosed whether they have submitted a bid for the purchase.

Bouygues and Vinci companies are an option, but as managers

Another alternative is for these two companies to apply only as managers, as they have been doing in previous years, but with a 99-year contract, which would give them a lot of investment margin, the expert considered.

In their hands they will have “a wonderful place to organize sporting events, but also concerts, in the heart of Europe and with the capacity to compete with the great stadiums of the continent,” said Moulard. Of course, the professor believes that there will never be a French club to live in this place, something that makes it “an almost unique example in Europe, comparable only to Wembley”.

With the difference that the magnificent stadium in London is owned by the English Football Federation, just as Twickenham is owned by the rugby union.

In France, those two federations did not choose to keep the Stade de France after its construction and are now in turmoil, making it impossible for them to apply for it. They had to settle, until now, to keep a percentage of the tickets (about 30%) to continue watching their teams play in the biggest stadium in the country.