Time for new turf: Stade de France
The FFR have revealed plans to build a new 82,000 capacity national stadium 25km south of Paris in Evry-Essonne.
The design for the new stadium comes from the same British-based architects who were behind the construction of the new Wembley Stadium and Aviva Stadium, and will work alongside French construction group Ateliers 2/3/4.
The new ground will have a fully retractable roof, along with a slide-able pitch for outdoor events. Construction is scheduled to get underway in 2014 at an estimated cost of €600 million.
"Today we have reached a milestone that embodies a strong ambition and a project essential for the FFR, allowing it to be independent and in control of its future," said FFR president Pierre Camou.
"The three projects were all of a high technical quality, combining innovation and aesthetics. But we had to make a choice," said vice-president Serge Blanco.
"The proposal made by Populous and Ateliers 2/3/4 proved to be the most appropriate to meet the objectives that we set for the medium and long term. It fits perfectly with the idea that we are creating a multi-purpose stadium for excellence."
Comments
kybone says...
lawynd- Yea well you may have a point. I just thought it might make sense to build it closer to the region where most of the big clubs and, probably, most of the rugby loving fans are situated. To me it would be like England deciding to build a national rugby league stadium in London, when all the fans are in the north west and yorkshire.
Posted 10:19 15th February 2013
lawynd says...
France is also considerably larger geographically, so placing any national stadia within easy reach of the most people is only sensible. Especially coupled with all of the high-speed rail lines and provincial airports that link to Paris; like London, it's far easier to get there than most other places in the country, even over longer distances.
Posted 09:21 15th February 2013
lawynd says...
@kybone - the Parisian metropolitan area has 12m residents; the next largest is Marseille with 1.6m. Compare that to London's metropolitan area of 13m, then Birmingham at 3.7m, and the trend continues; you mentioned Newcastle, but it has a similar population size to Marseille yet is nowhere near one of the largest cities in the UK.
Posted 09:21 15th February 2013
kybone says...
BackingLeinster- Im not really up on the geography of all the cities of France, but there surely must be somewhere further south than Paris that could be home to the national rugby stadium. You cant honestly tell me that Paris is the only city with the infrastructure for a major sporting venue. Just as an example England has major stadiums similar to or bigger in size than the Aviva in Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds, 2 in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and several in London. If they want it in Paris then so be it, but its not because theres nowhere else it could go. France is over twice as big as England.
Posted 18:50 14th February 2013
GoWalesGo says...
pierredelot1
The Millenium Stadium doesn't really have a pitch. They just sort of plop it on for rugby and football. It doesn't get enough sunlight either (or something like that) because of the design of the stadium.
This is state of the art modern technology. With a pull out pitch, i'm sure it well get enough sun and water to keep healthy.
I would recommend they use that DessoMaster (hybrid turf and grass) stuff. It seems to work great at the Liberty Stadium for rugby and football.
Posted 12:27 14th February 2013
pierredelot1 says...
I only hope that they don't end up with a poor pitch as happened in Cardiff. Greatest Rugby Stadium in the World, but a pitch built on pallets has done it no favours at all. For all those doubters in the world, All roads in France lead to Paris.
Posted 19:19 13th February 2013
melkdave says...
I can understand the FFR wanting their own stadium,as playing rugby puts alot of different prssures on a pitch than football,and parc du princes and stad du France are both football stadiums owned by the football authorities..Lets hope its money well spent ,the project sure looks intresting ,and another stadium with a retractable roof
Posted 17:10 13th February 2013
BackingLeinster says...
@kybone Yes a glutt of the clubs are in the south of France but a lot of them are in small town and cities,Paris has ten times the size of the next which is Marseille, they just wouldn't have the necessary infrastructure required. It may be a shorter trip distance wise but could be a much bigger headache. Getting 50000 to the aviva is bad enough, i wouldn't like to see that many suddenly descend on Tomond
@lawynd Your comments are all very good points but with regards to 99call's i think he was joking. ireland and france both have roll on roll off pitches.
Posted 17:06 13th February 2013
kybone says...
I get that France want a stadium that is primarily for rugby, but why is it being built near Paris? All the biggest clubs are in the Basque area and around the south of the country apart from Stade Francais and Racing Metro.
Posted 15:33 13th February 2013
jamesliveinhope says...
so, the present rugby stadia with removable pitches are.....
One of which is renowned for puckering like a cartoon carpet on the first bit of scrum pressure and the other puckers like a cartoon carpet on the first bit of scrum pressure.
Lessons being learned anywhere by anyone?
Posted 14:57 13th February 2013
feckin_eejit says...
The Aviva cost ¿410m because there were tight development restrictions and huge "compensation" costs for the D4 mafia who live beside it and because it was built by construction companies looking to take advantage of the massive property bubble in the country. Hopefully the French won't have the same problem.
So will this mean that Paris has Parc des Princes, Stade Francais, plus this new one? Suppose it's not so large when you consider the number of stadia in London.
Posted 14:31 13th February 2013
lawynd says...
@99call - it's a brand new stadium to be owned by the FFR, as opposed to the current Stade de France which is owned by the French Football Federation. As such, the FFR barely make any money on games staged there and the facilities aren't conducive to rugby, as has been shown during the last two 6N tournaments. Hardly a waste of money.
@papachinzo - the Aviva is a different beast; architectural features to preserve 'right to light' at one end for the neighbouring buildings and a site just outside Dublin city centre are just two of the many things that would have driven the costs for the development up, as well as the big one that is working on a brownfield site. This new stadium is on the outskirts of Paris (thus not having the same site access issues), possibly on a greenfield site depending upon which site is chosen and is unlikely to encounter the same kind of planning red tape that the Aviva did.
Posted 14:30 13th February 2013
papachinzo says...
Fantastic for France to finally have their own stadium, I wonder if the soil will be heated this time? The Aviva cost ¿410 million, has none of those features and is 30'000 less seats... something tells me this will cost more than ¿600m !
Posted 12:52 13th February 2013
99call says...
theyve already got a slide-able pitch so why waste all that money
Posted 12:07 13th February 2013