The Stade de France, which hosts the athletics events for the Olympic Games, is receiving a major facelift… with some unusual color.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games begin in a few months and it is now time to finish the construction of the infrastructures, to inaugurate them, like the Olympic village inaugurated on Thursday February 29, or to perfect the last details for the places that need a little facelift.
This is the case of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. Quite “old”, this stadium built for the 1998 World Cup has not hosted any competition or even a concert since the start of 2024, in order to preserve it and above all to reserve the venue for the Olympic Games in July. The very first rugby sevens event will take place there on July 24.
Since the Rugby World Cup final, the Stade de France has been under construction. This phase of renovation comes after that of 2021, which was based on lighting, accessibility, refreshment bars and even VIP areas for a total of 40 million. The second phase, exclusive for the Olympics, costs less, but is crucial.
The first stage of this facelift consisted of moving the stands back 15 m to once again reveal the 9-lane athletics track and the jumping grounds (the stadium will therefore see its capacity reduced to a maximum of 70,000 seats). But the “emblematic” project concerns the reconstruction of the Olympic track, which will be purple in color, at the request of the Paris 2024 Olympic Committee.
After the blue of the Rio Olympic Games and the red of Tokyo Olympic Games, the track at the Stade de France will therefore have a unique color. A surprising choice because ocher red, the base color of the slopes, would have better resistance to the sun’s ultraviolet rays and TV broadcasters would favor this color because it would be optimal during on-screen broadcasts.
So why did you choose purple? The reason is as surprising as it is simple: the organizing committee wanted to put the color “of joy” on the track. Just that ? A strong visual identity also wants to be put in place by the organizing committee with colors that will be redundant and marked. Red, blue, green and purple will be celebrating almost everywhere during these Olympics.
“This is formidable work, because you have to apply layers and undercoats. All this requires drying time and specific weather conditions, neither too hot nor too cold,” assures Alexandra Boutelier, general director of the Stade de France. “This is similar to road work, not technically complicated, but within a tight schedule, because it takes at least three months and the weather is suitable. If we have two weeks of rain in March like at the moment, we will be bothered…”, she adds.
In addition to the track and the setback of the stands, the installation of a second access point to the electrical network is also planned. Finally, please note that it is still possible to visit the stadium and see the progress of the work until June 1, as Alexandra Boutelier announced to Le Parisien.