The Stade de France will host the opening match of Euro 2016 in three months, and 20 years after its construction, “one thing is clear: the stadium has squandered public funds with veracity,” according to Jean-Pascal Gayant for LE MONDE. The French Court of Audit revealed that €760M ($860M) of public funds “have been sunk into the construction of the stadium and to compensate for the lack of a resident club.” The “financial and social profitability of the stadium” was originally conceived with an occupant club in mind. The few experiments that have been attempted (Ligue 2 side Red Star for football, Stade Français and Racing 92 for rugby) were abandoned after the “rental costs including security and emergency services were deemed prohibitive.” During the ’14-15 season, Ligue 2 side RC Lens (then in Ligue 1) wanted to play matches in the Stade de France while its own stadium was being renovated, but the club “was soon faced with the reality of the numbers:” €420,000 per match. Only a handful of so-called “gala” matches could “reasonably be organized there.” The French Government has an agreement with the Stade de France consortium that a minimum of nine matches “be played at the stadium per year,” or the Government must pay the consortium €23M ($26M) per year until ’25.
NO WAY OUT: The football and rugby federations “also fall victim to the exorbitant cost of renting the stadium” -- €5M ($5.7M) per year for the French Football Federation -- and “feel trapped by the commitments made by the government.” It is for this reason the French Rugby Federation (FFR) “is constructing its own 82,000-seat stadium in Essonne” for an estimated cost of €600M ($679M), which the Court of Audit estimates will reach €800M ($905M) “by the time it is completed." The "situation has become grotesque with such a project meaning two 80,000-seat underused stadiums will coexist in the Parisian region" (LE MONDE, 3/17).
