Will the Parc des Princes soon be deserted by Paris Saint-Germain? The football club wanted to buy it to enlarge and renovate it, but for the town hall, it’s no.
The Prince’s Park is not for sale ” and ” will not be sold at Paris Saint-Germain. While the club was aiming to buy the stadium from the town hall of Paris, the mayor Anne Hidalgo decided: it is out of the question. “It is a firm and definitive position. This is an exceptional heritage of Parisians”, she insists in an interview with readers of the Parisianwhile his team said so far to be open to dialogue, even if the sale was not his ” priority option “.
This statement by the mayor of Paris follows the threat of the Qatari owners of PSG to leave the historic grounds of the club if it were not ceded to them, a condition according to them for carrying out modernization and expansion work up to 500 millions of euros.
Insufficient capacity
For their part, the supporters are divided. If for Thibaut, a fan of PSG, the Parc des Princes is a stadium “ mythical “, the club has changed its status and the current 48,000 places are no longer enough” We need a bigger stadium. It should be possible to expand or renovate it in a way to stay here “, he believes at the microphone of RFI.
This is exactly what Anne Hidalgo, who wishes” support PSG in its desire and need for renovation, increased capacity, modernization of the Park “. Even though “ part of the stadium is on the ring road, so you can’t dig “, nuances the mayor of paris.
Inaugurated first in 1897 then in 1972 with its new architecture, the former velodrome has hosted the Parisian club since 1974. The current emphyteutic lease, which entered into force in 2014, runs for 30 years. At the end of November, the president of PSG Nasser Al-Khelaïfi had dug up the hatchet on this subject. ” They’re pressuring us to leave “, had dropped the Qatari leader in a vitriolic interview against the municipality, recalling having “ invested 80 million euros – before Euro 2016 – in a stadium that “ is not ours “.
The club did make a takeover offer, but ” very low, very far from the estimate we had “, had then affirmed the sports assistant Pierre Rabadan. According to a source close to the Parisian club quoted by AFP, the assessment carried out by the town planning services was ” ten times higher than what we had as a price “. According to the first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire quoted by The Parisian, the amount offered by PSG was 40 million euros. ” It’s cheaper than Paredes “, the Argentine midfielder” bought 50 million euros “, he had mocked, attracting the wrath of Mr. Al-Khelaïfi.
” Have a true identity »
A possible move is seen rather favorably by some supporters. ” Build a new stadium that will allow you to have a real identity and know that this stadium belongs to us thinks a PSG fan. Others are more dubious. “ It will hurt my heart a littlelaments a young fan. It will be a little disturbing because it might not be the same club anymore. After to see where does it move and what is the building. He must not move too far anyway and he must stay in Paris because here we are, the Paris club. »
PSG is already building a training center in Poissy, 30 km from Paris. The former velodrome has hosted the Parisian club since 1974 and the current lease, which came into effect in 2014, was due to end in 2044.
(And with AFP)