Invited to discuss with the teams of the incubator of sports start-ups "Le Tremplin" in Paris, Roxana Maracineanu, Minister Delegate in charge of Sports, agreed to discuss the reopening of the stadiums to the public after having mentioned it during the 'a trip to Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) on Thursday.
Why did you announce your desire to reopen the stadiums to the public as of December 15 when Prime Minister Jean Castex was talking about the end of January?
ROXANA MARACINEANU.
I am only responding to the order placed by the President of the Republic: to work on reopening public access to the stadiums with a relative gauge that we will adopt according to the epidemic curve.
But the deadline was set for the end of January ...
I listened to all the players in the sporting world, heard the importance of having people in the stadiums from December 15 to January 20, knowing that there are not 2000 games scheduled during this period.
Unlike the first confinement, we are at the start of the season.
Clubs must deliver a service to their advertisers.
If they delay or can't get there, these advertisers will opt out.
The president of the Toulouse Stadium (Didier Lacroix) explained to me that 1000 hospitality places corresponded to 40% of his ticketing budget, it's still huge.
You have to take that into consideration.
Even with minimal gauges, we save part of the revenue.
The players in the sports world also want to offer a solution to end the crisis, to prevent a third wave because they have the possibility of doing so through a protocol for welcoming the public.
In particular by encouraging the download of the TousAntiCovid application to more easily trace the virus.
Sports associations really want to position themselves as a solution because the attraction of returning to the stadium to see a show exists.
I am convinced of the responsibility and the work of the actors on this subject.
How do you imagine this reopening?
Could a 20,000-seat stadium be restricted to 10,000 for example?
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I will not go into the technical details which are currently being studied.
What I can tell you is that we have started to work on the calculation of this relative gauge.
For large stadiums, it is necessary to take into consideration the surrounding flows, not to exceed a certain threshold either.
Take the Stade de France.
If we decide that there will be 50% less reception, that still makes 40,000 people.
We must calculate this liability gauge.
We will have a stopover on December 1st, another on December 15th.
If we can come up with a satisfactory solution according to the curve of the epidemic, I imagine that the Prime Minister and the President will pay attention to it.
Otherwise it will probably be in January.
But we have no interest in restricting sport because we are all convinced of its usefulness, of the spectacle it offers, of its usefulness for the psychological and physical well-being of the French, such as the theater or the cinema.
Moreover, we have already succeeded in re-enabling outdoor sports for children, as well as adults, who will have access to the equipment from Saturday.
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Except for team sports and contacts for adults?
Individual practices can be offered.
A football club can offer access to the stadium to adults provided the activity is contactless.
On leaving the first confinement, we made the mistake in the communication to say that contact and team sports could not resume.
In fact, the associations had remained closed.
But the message we want to get across is that all sports can resume, but with individual practices.
Don't you have the impression that sport is not taken enough into account, not heard enough, compared to other sectors such as culture?
Do you have that impression?
At a time when we are confined, when all the shops are closed, the bars too…, would you find it normal that we allow people in the stadiums?
In the first certificate, there was still a reason for going out to go for a walk, to walk with his children for an hour, nowhere else, in another country, with strict confinement, he was allowed to practice sport.
It is a huge consideration.
The President reaffirmed at the last Council of Ministers that in this way out of the crisis, sport is more than ever at the center of our concerns, because it is useful for public health.
The announcements of 400 million additional aid, in support of clubs, also shows a great involvement of the State.
And those who can no longer afford a license in a sports club at the end of this crisis, we will help them up to 100 million euros.
I can not hear that sport is not considered.