It's official since Tuesday, 2:30 p.m.
The Bauer stadium, an aging municipal sports arena where the Red Star plays, no longer belongs to the municipality of Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis).
The deed of sale for 26.5 million euros was signed at the town hall by the socialist mayor Karim Bouamrane for the benefit of the real estate group Réalités, winner of the Inventons la Métropole du Grand Paris competition.
The Bauer stadium is dead, long live the Bauer stadium!
The promise, the hope of a rebirth was well worth a symbolic photo, because with this sale to the private sector, a huge chapter of French popular football is closing.
And a new one opens.
Objective: the in-depth renovation of the emblematic equipment of the Red Star, for 112 years, which "will allow it to practice in an enclosure worthy of its sports project", summarizes Karim Bouamrane, in a press release.
"The project represents a potential for excellence for Seine-Saint-Denis"
“It's fantastic on all fronts,” says Yoann Choin-Joubert, CEO of the Réalités group.
It is the culmination of two years of work.
The project represents a potential for excellence for Seine-Saint-Denis.
This department is a nugget for France and we want to contribute to its development.
The promoter has also entered the capital of Red Star up to 17%, at the end of last year, to better consolidate the partnership, including financial, with the club.
Saint-Ouen town hall, May 18.
Signing of the sale of the Bauer stadium by the city of Saint-Ouen, between the CEO of Réalités, Yoann Choin-Joubert (left), the mayor PS Karim Bouamrane.
With, on his right, Geoffroy Boulard, mayor (LR) of the 17th district, representing the Metropolis of Greater Paris.
Jerome Panconi
The last adjustments and the final version of the rehabilitation of the Bauer stadium will be publicly presented in early July 2021, while a public consultation took place in the fall of 2020. The new complex, to be delivered in 2024, will offer a capacity of 9,750 places, in the ground and an English design, that is to say close to the players. Demolition work on the disused stands in the east has just started to allow for the first construction in 2021-2022 of a stand for 4,000 spectators.
A second building permit should be filed at the end of June, beginning of July for the rest of the project, the advantage of which is to preserve the particularity of Bauer: that of an urban stadium.
At the front of the arena, brick buildings, the height of which has been lowered since the competition, will house 30,000 m2 of operations (shops, services, economic activities).
The name of the stadium preserved for 99 years
"We are relieved after so many years of procrastination, we were keen on the architecture and this location in the city center," confides Vincent Chutet-Mézence, president of the association of supporters the Collectif Red Star Bauer.
We are happy but we remain vigilant.
One of the great satisfactions of these enthusiasts is the non-naming commitment, in other words the name of “Bauer stadium” will be preserved for 99 years, with the assurance of not seeing the flashy brand of a sponsor attached.
"We are very attached to the values that we carry as supporters, those of a popular, open, tolerant and anti-racist spectator platform," continues Vincent Chutet-Mézence.
The next discussions will focus on ticket prices, which must remain accessible.
To read also For fans of the Red Star, "the future Bauer stadium must remain accessible to the most modest"
The current fetish infrastructures located on rue du Docteur-Bauer are very dilapidated, limited to 2,999 places… A poor condition which has complicated the life of the Red Star for the past twenty-five years and forced temporary exiles.
Two long decades where it was often a question of renovation, reconstruction and angry with the various municipalities, to the point of becoming Arlesian.
With a point of fixation: find the funds.
Emergency rehabilitation in 2002
In 1997, the communist city of Saint-Ouen launched a rehabilitation project valued at 150 million francs (23 million euros), of which a third was its responsibility.
But in 1998, when the club had to give up the municipal stadium, pending the work and officially because it was no longer up to standard, at the same time he submitted an application to become a resident of the brand new Stade de France. .
Anger of the mayor at the time, Paulette Fost (PCF), to whom Jean-Claude Bras, then president of the club, replied: “If the Red Star goes to the Stade de France, it will save Saint-Ouen!
“Finally, the renovation is aborted and the players with the red star will not move to the Stade de France either.
After an emergency rehabilitation in 2002, the municipality mentioned four years later a project for an Arena with 20,000 seats, in the Docks, a district along the Seine, the development of which is in the process of being initiated. .
An idea that Patrice Haddad, president of the Red Star since 2008, takes up for himself.
"It was not my will, it was that of an executive," recalls the latter.
It was necessary to initiate projects to give the Red Star its visibility.
At least it served that purpose.
Today we are in Bauer and we remain in Bauer.
"
"The culmination of twelve years of work"
In 2015, when the club will move up to Ligue 2, the urgent need to renovate the stadium again arises, without which the matches will be relocated. Mayor William Delannoy (UDI) is playing for time, the city not having the financial means to follow. When the President of the Republic, François Hollande came to the Red Star lawn in September 2015, the Secretary of State for Sports, Thierry Braillard had a lively exchange with the deputy mayor for sports, throwing him in the face a "It's a shame!" », About the state of the stadium.
For Patrice Haddad, the signing of this Tuesday constitutes “the culmination of twelve years of work”.
"I lived three terms under my presidency and for the city, the renovation of this stadium was a sea serpent," he underlines.
No project came to fruition, we were exiled away from Bauer for three years in Ligue 2. It was difficult to build something on instability.
"
Instability which should succeed, hopes the president of the Red Star, a period of "sustainability".
“Today, we have our training center in Marville (
Editor's note: between Saint-Denis and La Courneuve)
and we are also going to equip ourselves with a lawn worthy of the name.
We can pretend not to set limits.
"
Bauer and the Red Star, a common story, a linked destiny
“The Red Star… The Red Star… The Red Star… It's only at Bauer, at Bauer, at Bauer! You just have to read these words, then close your eyes to hear them rise from the Rino Della Negra tribune, punctuated by hundreds of voices that end up making one, a little deeper. When we have only attended a home match of the team with the red star, we know the importance of the chants of the supporters who form the link between the stadium of Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint- Denis) and his club. A duo that has left its mark in the history of French football.
Inaugurated in 1909, the Bauer stadium quickly acquired wooden shelters around the pitch to accommodate the public.
"Leaping is based on handling the ball," says the caption of this photo, which is over a century old.
Gilles Saillant / Red Star Collection
Founded in 1897, in Paris, by Jules Rimet, the Red Star joined the sports arena of Saint-Ouen as soon as it was built in 1909. Around, the district became industrialized with the establishment of factories of mechanical tools and automobile production.
Lulu the big arms, Wisp ...
Between 1921 and 1942, the club won the Coupe de France five times.
Fans will tell you about the great players of the time, Lucien Gamblin, known as Lulu les gros bras, emblematic captain of the Red Star, who lifted the trophy three times in a row between 1921 and 1923. Or Alfred Aston, alias Feu follet, one of the best players of his generation.
And, of course, essential personalities, like Rino Della Negra, a young Red Star hopeful shot in 1944, for his role in the resistance and his commitment among snipers and supporters.
At the head of the club until 1910, Jules Rimet continued his path, becoming the first president of the French Football Federation in 1919 and the initiator in 1928 of the World Cup.
The Red Star also continues its journey, made up of ups and downs.
And forge an image and values.
The record of 23,000 spectators, in 1935
"It's much more than a club, it's an institution for Seine-Saint-Denis," said Charles Itandje, a former Cameroonian international trained as a goalkeeper in Saint-Ouen, whose colors he wore. from 1999 to 2001. "I am a kid from 93 and playing at Bauer meant a lot to me: the possibility of seeing a future and improving my condition," adds Charles Itandje, now coach at FC Versailles.
Even empty, this stadium has a soul.
"
During a match at the Bauer stadium in 1969. DR
Expanded for the first time in 1922, the municipal field of Saint-Ouen (officially the Paris stadium) accommodated 23,000 spectators in 1935, for the match against Sochaux, a record never broken since. In 1975, the North stand with 7,500 seats was built in place of the earthen mound on which spectators sat. In the 1980s, the informal name of “Bauer” (from the name of a resistant Jewish doctor who was shot in 1942) imposed itself in everyday language, before becoming official in 2021. But for lack of renovation carried out in the last thirty years, the stadium declines, inexorably.
The brilliant Brazilian player Ronaldo crowded with his team the Saint-Ouen lawn in 1998, against Andorra, in a friendly match before the World Cup. "An exceptional memory", sums up Charles Itandje. But 1998 also marks the beginning of the problems. More up to standard, then hit hard by the storm of December 1999, Bauer will be repaired at a lower cost in 2002, for 400,000 euros.