Stade de France visible from central Paris behind the Sacré-Cœur
The discussion of a national stadium in France came about as a result of the country's selection to host the 1998 FIFA World Cup on 2 July 1992. As a result of the selection, the country and the France Football Federation made a commitment to construct an 80,000+ capacity all-seater stadium with every seat in the facility being covered. It was the first time in over 70 years since the construction of the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir that a stadium in France was being constructed for a specific event. Due to the magnitude and importance of the facility, the Council of State was allowed first hand approach to how the stadium would be constructed and paid for. The Council sought for the stadium to be built as close as possible to the capital of France, Paris, and that the constructor and operator of the facility would receive significant financial contribution for a period of 30 months following the completion of the stadium. The stadium's design was handled by the team of architects composed of Michel Macary, Aymeric Zublena, Regembal Michel, and Claude Costantini who were associated with CR SCAU Architecture.
The stadium was officially ready for construction following the government's selection of manufacturers, Bouygues, Dumez, and SGE, and the signing of building permits on 30 April 1995.[2][3] With only 31 months to complete the stadium, construction commenced on 2 May 1995. The laying of the first cornerstone took place five months later on 6 September. After over a year of construction, over 800,000m ² of earthworks had been created and as much as 180,000 m³ of concrete had been poured. The installation of the roof, which cost €45 million, and the mobile platform also took more than a year to complete.
During the developmental phase, the stadium was referred to in French as the Grand Stade ("large stadium" or "great stadium"). On 4 December 1995, the Ministry of Sport launched a design competition to decide on a name for the stadium. The stadium was officially named the Stade de France after the Ministry heard a proposal from French football legend Michel Platini, who recommended the name.
The stadium was inaugurated on 28 January 1998 as it hosted a football match between France and Spain. The total cost of the stadium was approximately €290 million. The match was played in front of 78,368 spectators, which included PresidentJacques Chirac, with France winning the match 1–0 with Zinedine Zidane scoring the lone goal, and the first-ever in the Stade de France, in the 20th minute.[4] Six months later, France returned to the stadium and defeated Brazil in the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final to earn their first World Cup title. Stade de France has hosted group, quarter-final, semi-final and the final match of 1998 FIFA World Cup.[5] The national rugby team's first match in the facility was contested five days after its opening, on 2 February, with France earning a 24–17 win over England in front of 77,567 spectators.[6]Philippe Bernat-Salles converted the first ever try at the stadium scoring it in the 11th minute of play.[7]
On 24 May 2000, the Stade de France hosted the 2000 UEFA Champions League Final. In the match, which saw 78,759 spectators attend, Spanish club Real Madrid defeated fellow Spaniards Valencia 3–0. In 2003, the Stade de France was the primary site of the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. Three years later in 2006, the facility hosted another UEFA Champions League final with another Spanish club Barcelona defeating England's Arsenal 2–1. On 9 May 2009, the Stade de France set the national attendance record for a sporting match played in France with 80,832 showing up to watch Guingamp upset Brittany rivalsRennes 2–1 in the 2009 Coupe de France Final. On 22 May 2010, the Stade de France hosted the 2010 Heineken Cup Final.[8] On 11 February 2012, a Six Nations international rugby game between France and Ireland had to be cancelled just before kick-off due to the pitch freezing as the stadium lacks under-soil heating.[9]
On 13 November 2015, in one of a series of coordinated shootings and bombings across Paris, the Stade de France was targeted with explosions occurring outside the stadium during an international friendly between France and Germany, with French President François Hollande in attendance. The terrorist, however, was unable to enter the stadium.[10] The explosion was able to be heard from inside the stadium, and many thought it was a firework going off inside the stadium. The attacker wanted to infiltrate the stadium, but was scared away when he saw security and was forced to detonate outside the park. The authorities very aware of what had occurred outside the stadium thought it would cause less panic if no one was told and the match continued. The safest place for those people was actually inside the stadium and not until after the match did many find out about what had transpired. The stadium has now training for another sort of attack just to be safe, and the stadium has beefed up their security.[11] Everyone that attends matches wants to be safe, but not everyone are happy with new guidelines that the French police have been issuing.[12]
In 2016, the Stade de France was used as the central stadium for the 2016 Euros hosting seven matches.[13] The stadium was used for the opening ceremony of the tournament which saw French DJ David Guetta perform at the stadium. At the end of his set, Guetta invited Swedish singer Zara Larsson on stage to perform the tournament's official song - "This One's for You".[14][15] Following the ceremony the stadium was used for the tournament's opening game which saw France beat Romania 2-1.[16] Across the next month, the stadium was used for six other tournament matches including the UEFA Euro 2016 Final between France and Portugal. The match followed the closing ceremony which again saw David Guetta perform.[17] Portugal defeated France in extra time by one goal to nill and lifted the tournament trophy for the first time.[18]
The Stade de France has a movable stand which can be retracted to uncover part of the athletics track.[19] The stadium was notably designed with the assistance of a software simulation of crowd in order to get an accurate observation of how it would look fully developed. The facility was also intended to draw interest in and develop the area of the Plaine Saint-Denis, which straddle the communes of Saint-Denis, Aubervilliers, and Saint-Ouen. The primary goal was to renovate the area by building new residential and tertiary sites.
The stadium was built without any undersoil heating as noted when Ireland were due to play France in the Six Nations Tournament rugby union match of 2012, in which the game had to be canceled.
In 2002, the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABC) awarded a prize recognizing the unique structure of the Stade de France commenting that the Stade de France exhibited "a construction of an attractive open architecture of the city, with an elegance and natural lightness".
The last part of the metallic construction of the roof, 1997
Construction of the Stade de France's roof cost over €45 million. Its elliptical shape symbolizes the universality of sport in France. Its area of six hectares and weight, 13,000 tons, is considered a technical marvel by many. It was designed to easily protect the 80,000 spectators without covering the playing field. All lighting and sound, which include 550 lights and 36 blocks of 5 speakers, are housed inside to avoid obstructing visibility. The tinted glass in the center reduces the contrast and distributes natural light. It filters out red and infraredradiation, however, it allows blue and green lights, due to their necessity involving the health of the turf.
The Stade de France is the biggest modular stadium in the world with three galleries.
The forum is a low mobile platform of 25,000 seats. It is reached by the level 1. It may fall 15 feet to reveal all of the running track and jumping pits. It then retains 22,000 seats. The movement lasts 80 hours, 40 people 20h/24h mobilized, and carried by ten distinct elements of 700 tons each.
Access to the gallery is through with 22 bridges and can be found at level 3 with a concentration of restaurants, entertainment areas, shops and central station security.
18 staircases lead viewers to the upper gallery located at Level 6.
The evacuation of 80,000 spectators on the porch out can occur in less than 15 minutes.[citation needed]
Located at 11 meters below the court, the playing area measures 9,000 square meters (120 meters long and 75 meters wide) to a grassed area of 11,000 square meters. Nearly one billion seeds were sown to produce the first pitch in 1997. Today, the grass comes in rolls of 1.20 m x 8 m. Changing the pitch calls for three days of preparation and five days of installation. The change takes place several times a year, depending on the programming stage.
Unlike many other stadiums, the Stade de France was built without under pitch heating, as the stadium was constructed on the site of an old gasworks,[20] and there were concerns it could cause an explosion.
As part of its policy of renewing its infrastructure, the Stade de France added two new big screens in September 2006. The new displays have a surface 58% greater than the previous screens installed in 1998. The newer giant screens are each composed of 4 423 680 LED (Light Emitting Diode) for a self-made images more fluid, faster, and more particularly bright.
The Stade de France has no regular tenant other than the French national football and rugby teams. Repeated attempts to persuade a professional football or rugby team to move there have failed so far. Upon the construction of the stadium, Paris Saint-Germain declined to move there, choosing to remain at the Parc des Princes under pressure from its then-owner (pay-TV network Canal Plus) and the Paris city government.
However, the Paris rugby club Stade Français have now established themselves as a semi-regular tenant. They began by scheduling their Top 14 home fixture on 15 October 2005 against Toulouse at Stade de France. Stade Français's 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. The final attendance was 79,454, smashing the national attendance record for a league match in any sport by more than 20,000. Five minutes before the end of the Toulouse match, Guazzini announced to the crowd that Stade Français's scheduled home fixture against Biarritz in March 2006 would also be held at Stade de France.[21] The Stade-Biarritz match broke the attendance record from earlier in the season, with 79,604 present.
Guazzini then booked the Stade de France for the same two league fixtures in 2006–07. The Biarritz match on 16 October 2006 drew 79,619, making this the third consecutive Stade Français fixture at the Stade de France to set an all-time French attendance record. The record was broken yet again at a match against Toulouse on 27 January 2007, with 79,741 filling the stands. Stade Français went on to schedule three home matches at Stade de France in the 2007–08 season. For the 2008–09 season, they booked Stade de France for three home league matches and a Heineken Cup pool match. The number of Stade Français home matches at Stade de France increased again for 2009–10, with five Top 14 fixtures already announced for the stadium.
Even with the lack of a regular league tenant, the stadium's revenue increased greatly in 2007, as it was used extensively during the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, where it hosted 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 the 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. The Stade de France has hosted the Champions League final on two occasions: 2000 (Real Madrid 3 Valencia 0), and 2006 (Barcelona 2 Arsenal 1).
France's governing body for rugby union, the French Rugby Federation (FFR), announced in November 2010 that it would not renew its deal to use Stade de France for international rugby matches when it expires in 2013. FFR also stated that it planned to build a new stadium of its own in the Paris region.[22]
Reportedly, the FFR had become increasingly frustrated with several aspects of the deal. According to rugby journalist Ian Moriarty, "The deal with the Stade de France has been a disaster for the FFR financially over the years, forcing France's powerbrokers to look across the English channel at the RFU'sTwickenham cash cow with ever increasing envy."[23] Reports vary widely as to how much the FFR must spend to rent out the stadium, but estimates range from €3 million[23] to €5 million[24] per match. Although the Stade de France and Twickenham are roughly the same size, the rental expense means that the FFR reportedly makes about one-third as much from a Stade de France sellout as does the RFU from a sellout at Twickenham.[24] In addition, the national rugby team does not enjoy primacy at the Stade de France; the national football team and major concerts take priority. FFR had to move two of its 2010–11 home Tests to Montpellier and Nantes due to fixture clashes with the national football team.[23] Also, former FFR president Serge Blanco claimed that the 2009 Top 14 final had to be moved from May to June because of a conflict with a Johnny Hallyday rock concert.[22]
In June 2012, FFR announced that it had selected the site for its new ground, tentatively known as Grand Stade FFR.[25] The 82,000-seat stadium, featuring a retractable roof and slide-out pitch, was to be built on a former horse racing track in Évry, about 25 km (16 mi) south of Paris. The new stadium, estimated to cost €600 million, was originally scheduled to open in 2017,[23] but completion was later pushed back to the 2021/2022 time frame.[26] FFR officially abandoned the stadium project in December 2016.[27]
Although located at the crossroads of auto-routes A1 and A86, it is not advisable to go there by car unless you have reserved parking. The Stadium was built with a very limited number of parking spaces, which is why public transportation is considered the primary means of getting to the stadium. River shuttles are provided by the Canal Saint-Denis.
The King Baudouin Stadium is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. It was inaugurated on 23 August 1930. Crown Prince Leopold attended the opening ceremony. Located in the Heysel section of the Brussels municipality, it was built to embellish the Heysel plateau in view of the 1935 Brussels International Exposition. The stadium hosted 70,000 at the time. A wooden track for cycling races was later added around the pitch.
Parc des Princes
The Parc des Princes is an all-seater football stadium in Paris, France. The venue is located in the south-west of the French capital, inside the 16th arrondissement of Paris, in the immediate vicinity of the Stade Jean-Bouin and within walking distance from the Stade Roland Garros.
Millennium Stadium
The Millennium Stadium, known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national rugby union team and has also held Wales national football team games. Initially built to host the 1999 Rugby World Cup, it has gone on to host many other large-scale events, such as the Tsunami Relief Cardiff concert, the Super Special Stage of Wales Rally Great Britain, the Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain and various concerts. It also hosted six FA Cup finals and several other high-profile football fixtures while Wembley Stadium was being redeveloped.
Stade Vélodrome
The Stade Vélodrome, known as the Orange Vélodrome for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1 since it opened in 1937, and was a venue in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 2007 Rugby World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2016. It occasionally hosts RC Toulon rugby club of the Top 14. It is the largest club football ground in France, with a capacity of 67,394 spectators. The stadium is also used regularly by the France national rugby union team.
Top 14
The Top 14 is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France created in 1892. The Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism of LNR. There is promotion and relegation between the Top 14 and the next level down, the Rugby Pro D2. The fourteen best rugby teams in France participate in the competition, hence the name Top 14. The competition was previously known as the Top 16.
Stade Français
Stade Français Paris Rugby is a French professional rugby union club based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The club plays in the Top 14 domestic league in France and is one of the most successful French clubs of the modern era. Stade Français was founded in 1883. It was founded in its current form in 1995 with the merger of the rugby sections of the Stade Français and Club Athlétique des Sports Généraux (CASG).
Biarritz Olympique
Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque, usually known simply as Biarritz, is a French professional rugby union team based in the Basque city of Biarritz, New Aquitaine which competes in the Rugby Pro D2, the second division of French rugby. Biarritz plays its home matches at the Parc des Sports Aguiléra, which is a multi-use stadium in Biarritz and which has a capacity of around 13,500 people, though for games that need a larger capacity, Biarritz may play at the Estadio Anoeta in San Sebastián. Biarritz play in red and white colours. Biarritz won a number of major honors, including the French championship on five occasions.
The Stade de Gerland is a stadium in the city of Lyon, France which serves as home to Top 14 rugby club Lyon OU. It has a seating capacity of 25,000.
Stadium de Toulouse
Stadium de Toulouse is the largest multi-purpose stadium in Toulouse, France. It is currently used mostly for football matches, mainly those of the Toulouse Football Club and the big games of rugby for Stade Toulousain in the European Rugby Champions Cup or Top 14. It also hosts the test matches of France's national rugby union team. It is located on the island of Ramier near the centre of Toulouse. It is a pure football and rugby ground, and therefore has no athletics track surrounding the field. The stadium is able to hold 33,150 people.
Rugby union in Spain
Rugby union is a growing team sport in Spain. As of 2014, there were 51,123 registered rugby union players in Spain, playing for 221 clubs in various divisions.
The sport's governing body in Spain, the Spanish Rugby Federation, was founded in 1923. It joined the International Rugby Board in 1988, and is also a member of FIRA.
Allianz Riviera
The Allianz Riviera is a multi-use stadium in Nice, France, used mostly for football matches of host OGC Nice and also for occasional home matches of rugby union club Toulon. The stadium has a capacity of 36,178 people and replaces the city's former stadium Stade Municipal du Ray. Construction started in 2011 and was completed two years later. The stadium's opening was on 22 September 2013, for a match between OGC Nice and Valenciennes.
Stade Sébastien Charléty
Stade Sebastien Charléty, known simply as Stade Charléty or just Charléty, is a multi-use stadium in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, France. Officially, the current capacity of the stadium is 20,000 people. The stadium opened in 1938 and was designed by French architect Bernard Zehrfuss. It is the current home of Paris FC who compete in Ligue 2, and Paris Saint-Germain Féminines who compete in the Division 1 Féminine and in the UEFA Women's Champions League.
UEFA Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by UEFA. It was held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016. Spain were the two-time defending champions, having won the 2008 and 2012 tournaments, but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy. Portugal won the tournament for the first time, following a 1–0 victory after extra time over the host team, France, in the final played at the Stade de France.
Parc Olympique Lyonnais
Parc Olympique Lyonnais, known for sponsorship reasons as Groupama Stadium and in some competitions as Stade de Lyon or Grand Stade de Lyon, is a 59,186-seat stadium in Décines-Charpieu, in the Lyon Metropolis. The home of French football club Olympique Lyonnais, it replaced their previous stadium, Stade de Gerland, in January 2016.
UEFA Euro 2016 Final
The UEFA Euro 2016 Final was a football match that took place on 10 July 2016 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France, to determine the winners of UEFA Euro 2016. Portugal defeated the hosts and two-time winners France 1–0 after extra time, with a goal from substitute Eder, to claim its first major tournament title. In doing so, they became the tenth nation to win the UEFA European Championship, 12 years after losing their first final at home in 2004. France became the second host team to lose the final, after Portugal in 2004, and suffered their first defeat at a major tournament hosted in the country since the 1960 European Nations' Cup third-place playoff against Czechoslovakia. This was the fifth European Championship final to end in a draw after 90 minutes of play, and the second whose winners were decided by extra time, after the inaugural final in 1960.
