Stade de France
| File:Quartier du Cornillon et Stade de France - 03.04.05.JPG | |
 | |
| Location | 93216 Saint-Denis la Plaine, Saint-Denis, Paris, France |
|---|---|
| Owner | Consortium Stade de France |
| Operator | Consortium Stade de France |
| Capacity | 79,959 |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1995 |
| Opened | 1998 |
| Construction cost | €285 million EUR |
| Architect | Michel Macary, Aymeric Zubléna, Michel Regembal and Claude Constantini |
| Tenants | |
| none | |
The Stade de France is a football stadium in Saint-Denis, France, an inner suburb of Paris.
History
The Stade de France is the national stadium of France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It hosted France's greatest sporting triumph to date—the 3-0 victory over Brazil in the World Cup final on July 12, 1998. This was the first time that the France has won the World Cup, as well as the first time in twenty years that a host nation had captured the title.
Name
The word "France" in Stade de France does not refer to the country France, but it refers to an area, or pays, of the historical province of Île de France known as pays de France. Île-de-France was made up of several pays: pays de France, Parisis, Mantois, Hurepoix, and so on. Pays de France was the extremely fertile plain located immediately north of the city of Paris, with the city of Saint-Denis at its centre. Pays de France is now almost entirely built-up, being covered by the northern suburbs of Paris. Pays de France is also known as the plaine de France ("plain of France"), and the name of this old pays still appears in the name of some towns in the northern suburbs of Paris, such as Roissy-en-France (which means "Roissy in the pays de France"). Thus, the name of the stadium was chosen to give it a local touch, as it is located in the plaine de France, but of course most people outside of France are not aware of this fact, and assume it is the stadium of the country France. In fact, the new national stadium of Switzerland is called Stade de Suisse in presumed homage to the Stade de France.
The stadium's owner and operator, Consortium Stade de France, asserts registered trademark status for the name Stade de France.
Tenants
The Stade de France has no regular tenant, and remains empty for the majority of the year. Repeated attempts to convince a professional football or rugby team to move there have failed so far. Paris Saint-Germain is the only local team that has proven it could regularly draw crowds large enough for the Stade de France, but has remained at Parc des Princes under pressure from its parent company (pay-TV network Canal Plus) and the Paris city government. Given the current rugby and football climate in Paris, it is unlikely that any other team will develop a large enough fan base to make Stade de France a viable home within the next ten years.
However, recent developments make it conceivable that Stade de France may eventually gain a semi-regular tenant. The Paris rugby club Stade Français gambled on scheduling their TOP 14 home fixture on 15 October 2005 against Toulouse at Stade de France. Stade Français' president, Max Guazzini, publicly said that the club would have to sell 25,000 to 30,000 tickets to break even. Three weeks before the match, 61,000 tickets had been sold, setting a French record for tickets sold to a league match for any sport, including football. [1] The final attendance was 79,454, smashing the national attendance record for a league match in any sport by more than 20,000. [2] Five minutes before the end of the Toulouse match, Guazzini announced to the crowd that Stade Français' scheduled home fixture against Biarritz in March 2006 would also be held at Stade de France. [3] The Stade-Biarritz match broke the attendance record from earlier in the season, with 79,604 present.
Even with the lack of a regular league tenant, the stadium will see a large revenue increase as it will be used extensively during the highly anticipated 2007 Rugby World Cup in France where it will host numerous pool matches, a quarterfinal match, both of the semi finals and the final.
The Lille OSC football team played all its "home" games in European competition during the 2005-06 season, both in the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup, at Stade de France because its own stadium was then under renovation, and the only nearer alternative on French soil, Stade Félix Bollaert, was not available as that ground's occupant, Lille's local rival Lens, was also participating in the UEFA Cup. Stade de France hosted the 2005-2006 UEFA Champions League Final, which was won 2-1 by FC Barcelona over Arsenal.