If the emirs of Qatar are not keen on shifting Paris Saint-Germain from the Parc des Princes, sporting director Leonardo is fully aware of the club’s need to move to a much bigger and better Stade de France in the not-so-distant future
For many Parisians, Parc des Princes is an important part of the city’s rich history. Despite being old and inadequate, the stadium has a lot of sentimental value to PSG fans. Since its inception to professional football, Paris Saint-Germain have always
played at the Parc. However, all this might change in a few years time and Dionysiens could be in with a shot of getting much closer to the club than their neighbours from the south-west of Paris.
“We play in an old and inadequate stadium,” launched Leonardo in an interview to La Repubblica last December, thus prompting rumours and speculation regarding the future of Parc des Princes.
PSG’s sporting director’s statement was certainly in contradiction to the words of club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
“Parc des Princes has always been and always will remain the most beautiful home to PSG,” Khelaifi had said.
Even though many PSG fans feel a lot over the prospect of seeing their beloved PSG play at the Stade Denis in the future, circumstances will eventually make the move credible and practical.
Immigration
The conditions are certainly very ideal for a move. The club is going to take advantage of two seasons which will serve as a life-size test and could allow the public to accustom to the new surroundings. In addition, with the dissolution of the associations
of supporters and the sidelining of Ultras from the main strength of opposition fans it would make it easy for stewards to calm down fan fights.
The motivations should not be missed either: additional gate receipts would be made available which means that many fans who somehow always miss out on seeing their team perform, would have a much better chance of watching PSG play in front of their own
eyes due to more seats.
France is set to host the European Championships in the summer of 2016 and the Parc des Princes would be renovated which means that PSG will be seeing their home ground switched to Stade de France which is an equivalent of Wembley.
A matter of size
Most of the citizens of Paris have strong desires of staying at Parc des Princes but this time, the fans might not have their way. Jean-Claude Blanc has said that though the team wishes to respect the club’s history, it also aims to grow and aspires to become
the greatest club in Europe.
The arrival of the Qataris means that the clubs is bound to think big. Less than 50,000 seats, Parc des Princes would certainly never become a cathedral of Europe. Furthermore, with the likes of Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique de Marseille and LOSC Lille attracting
far more audiences than PSG, the Qataris would want to have a good attendance which can only happen if the club moves to a stadium where the capacity crowd crosses the 50,000 mark at least.
French football body is considering ‘breaking down the walls’ of Parc des Princes, a concept that has only been met with a hostile response which means that Euro 2016 could lose one of the most historical stadiums in its fixture list.
The French national Rugby team also plays a few games at the Parc des Princes and the association has agreed to sponsor the construction of an 82,000-seater stadium. However, the fans’ are in no mood to witness the demolition of Parc des Princes.
The move from Parc des Princes to the Stade de France is highly speculative at this time but what is surprising is the fact that the new owners might be determined to make a clean sweep of the past in order to “bring PSG to a new dimension”.
This move would certainly alienate the owners from the PSG faithful but could be considered necessary for increasing the marketability of the club.