Stade de France

The Stade de France is a football and rugby union stadium in Saint-Denis, France, an inner suburb of Paris. It has a capacity of around 80,000. The stadium is currently used for the French rugby union team during the Six Nations and other internationals. Paris’s main rugby club, Stade Français, have also regularly used the stadium as a home ground in recent years. Stade de France is also the venue for the Top 14 (the domestic rugby championship) final, the france football cup and the french football league cup every year. The French football team also use the stadium, and it was there where they defeated Brazil 3-0 in the 1998 FIFA World Cup final. It was also used as the final venue for the Coupe de France (football competition). Stade de France has been the host for the Race of Champions for the past three years. In 2007, it hosted several matches of the Rugby World Cup, including the final.

History

The Stade de France is the national stadium of France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. It hosted one of France’s greatest sporting triumphs to date-the 3-0 victory over Brazil in the World Cup final on July 12, 1998. This was the first time that France had won the World Cup, as well as the first time in twenty years that a host nation had captured the title. Previously played at Parc des Princes, the Top 16 (French rugby championship, now the Top 14) final was moved permanently to Stade de France that year. Parisian team Stade Français defeated USA Perpignan 34-7 in May of that year. The following year it hosted one match of the Welsh hosted 1999 Rugby World Cup, a quarter-final, where the Springboks defeated England 44-21.

Name

The word “France” in Stade de France does not refer to the country of France, but it refers to an area, or pays, of the historical province of ÃŽle de France known as pays de France. ÃŽle-de-France was made up of several pays: pays de France, Parisis, Mantois, Hurepoix, and so on. Pays de France was the extremely fertile plain located immediately north of the city of Paris, with the city of Saint-Denis at its centre. Pays de France is now almost entirely built-up, being covered by the northern suburbs of Paris. Pays de France is also known as the plaine de France (“plain of France”), and the name of this old pays still appears in the name of some towns in the northern suburbs of Paris, such as Roissy-en-France (which means “Roissy in the pays de France”). Thus, the name of the stadium was chosen to give it a local touch, as it is located in the plaine de France, but of course most people outside of France are not aware of this fact, and assume it is named for the country. In fact, the new national stadium of Switzerland is called Stade de Suisse in presumed homage to the Stade de France. The stadium’s owner and operator, Consortium Stade de France, asserts registered trademark status for the name Stade de France.

Concerts

Although many artists have now had concerts in the stadium, Celine Dion broke records with 2 nights in 1999. 90’000 fans came each night to her concert. The concert has been released on DVD and CD.

Tenants

The Stade de France has no regular tenant, and remains empty for the majority of the year, though Stade Français have moved numerous games there in recent years. Repeated attempts to convince a professional football or rugby team to move there have failed so far. Paris Saint-Germain has remained at Parc des Princes under pressure from its parent company (pay-TV network Canal Plus) and the Paris city government.

However, recent developments make it conceivable that Stade de France may eventually gain a semi-regular tenant. The Paris rugby club Stade Français gambled on scheduling their Top 14 home fixture on 15 October 2005 against Toulouse at Stade de France. Stade Français’ 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. The Stade-Biarritz match broke the attendance record from earlier in the season, with 79,604 present.

Guazzini then booked 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 Stade de France to set an all-time French attendance record. The record was broken yet again at the Toulouse match on 27 January 2007, with 79,741 filling the stands.

Even with the lack of a regular league tenant, the stadium will see a large revenue increase as it will be used extensively during the highly anticipated 2007 Rugby World Cup in France where it will host 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 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. Stade de France hosted the 2005-2006 UEFA Champions League Final, which was won 2-1 by FC Barcelona over Arsenal.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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